COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



COILLARD 
OF THE ZAMBESI 

THE LIVES OF FRANCOIS AND 
CHRISTINA COILLARD, OF THE 
PARIS MISSIONARY SOCIETY, IN 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA 
(1858-1904) 

BY 

Ci W. MACKINTOSH 



WITH A FRONTISPIECE, A MAP, AND 77 ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

MCMVII 



PRINTED BY, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON, ENGLAND. 



(All rights reserved.) 



Preface 



THE life of Francois Coillard might be written from 
several points of view. He influenced the map of 
South Africa and the natives far and wide. He deeply- 
stirred the Reformed Churches of the Continent. But 
possibly his life will prove to have told most profoundly 
upon his fellow-labourers in the world-wide mission-field ; 
he was pre-eminently the missionary's missionary. He 
did not lay claim to be an original thinker, a scientific 
observer, or a great commander and organiser, yet all 
who met him felt they were in the presence of genius — 
the genius of insight, of sympathy, and devotion. He 
and his wife stand forth as types of those pioneer days 
which are past for ever. Besides the power of action, 
both had the power of feeling and expression to an 
unusual degree, and that is why their history has been 
deemed worth recording. 

Both left copious journals and correspondence. The 
difficulty of selection from this mass of material has been 
very great, and much that was valuable and interesting 
has inevitably been sacrificed to the continuity of the 
narrative. In order to place the various events in their 
proper light, it has been necessary to consult other 
authorities, chief among these being the numbers of the 
Paris Journal des Missions Evangeliques since 1855, and 



vi COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the Basutoland Becords, compiled by Dr. Theal. I am 
also indebted to Dr. Theal for much kind personal help 
and advice ; as, however, he has not seen the proof-sheets, 
it would not be right to identify him with the views of 
affairs here set forth. I would also express my cordial 
thanks to the British South Africa Company for kindly 
granting me access to their archives concerning Barotsi- 
land and permitting me to quote the letter on page 383, 
and to Mr. P. Lyttelton Gell and to His Honour the 
Administrator of North- West Ehodesia for the tributes 
to M. Coillard's work which appear in the Appendix. 
My gratitude is also due to the Staff and Directors of the 
Paris Missionary Society, both at headquarters and in 
the field, for all their assistance, and especially to my 
revered friend, Mme. Mabille, whose opportune presence 
in England afforded me inestimable help in writing the 
earlier chapters of this book. I would, moreover, thank 
all M. Coillard's friends (particularly among the Dutch 
Churches of South Africa) who have placed photographs, 
letters, and reminiscences at my disposal. Many docu- 
ments not quoted have been of great value in establishing 
dates and clearing up obscurities. 

It would be impossible to write a book about South 
Africa, covering so stormy a period, which should be 
acceptable to everybody. My sole aim has been to 
ascertain the facts, however painful sometimes their 
character, and to present them as simply as possible. 
M. Coillard's own journals and letters fit into the official 
records like pieces into a puzzle, many " undesigned 
coincidences" proving his accuracy and candour as a 
narrator. 

The spelling of African names does not pretend to be 
authoritative ; it merely follows usage. 

It need hardly be said that, however great the sym- 
pathy between my uncle and aunt and myself in all that 



PREFACE 



vii 



concerned their work, it was unlikely that persons so 
different in age, upbringing, and (in his case) nationality 
could see eye to eye in everything. Where there was 
divergence I have endeavoured to give effect to their 
views, not my own. 

In looking over this biography, I am deeply conscious 
of its inadequacy to give a living portrait. All the letters 
and journals quoted have been very much condensed, 
and in the process much of their aroma has fled. 
Some will see in the last pages merely the record of 
heroic failure. But Francois Coillard's labour on the 
Zambesi was not a failure. It was only the beginning 
of a work which it is our responsibility to continue if 
not to complete. Some who read may perhaps feel this 
responsibility a personal one, and hence may be glad to 
know that both the Basuto and Barotsi branches of the 
Paris Society are represented in England by auxiliary 
committees, the addresses of which are given below. 

This Preface may fitly conclude with a passage from 
M. Coillard's own autobiography, written in 1880, de- 
scribing the opening of the second Maison des Missions 
in 1857, the original one having been closed in the 
Eevolution of 1848 :— 

"I was struck by the text on which M. Grandpierre based his 
discourse, Haggai ii. 9 : ' The glory of this latter house shall be 
greater than that of the former house.'' It was fine, but it was a 
dream, to my mind impossible of realisation. The first Mission 
House had a glory of its own. ... It cradled a race of rare men, a 
race of giants who belonged to another epoch than ours. . . . The 
names of Lemue, Holland, Pellissier, Daumas, Casalis, Arbousset 
stand beside those of Vanderkemp, Moffat, and John Williams. Yes, 
these were among the heroes whose deeds of valour have built up the 
Church and have been the salvation of nations. The missionary 
calling has no longer — it cannot have — the adventurous character of 
fifty or sixty years ago. No need now of courage and boldness and 
transcendent devotion for those who follow it. But 1 those that 
honour Me, I will honour,' saith the Lord, and that is enough." 



viii COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



So wrote Francois Coillard in 1880, not knowing that 
his greatest achievements still lay before him, and that 
he himself would be numbered among those for whose 
exploits he thought the world had neither space nor 
need. So may it prove with those who come after, and 
who are conscious, as he was, of their unfitness to follow 
in such footsteps. New tasks of equal grandeur await 
new men. The lives of their forerunners have proved 
that the work of unrighteousness and calumny decays ; 
the work of justice and of mercy endures, even through 
persecution and outward ruin, and in G-od's own time 
bears fruit. 

"He will keep the feet of His saints ; and the wicked 
shall be silent in darkness ; for by strength shall no man 
prevail" (1 Sam. ii. 9). 

C. W. MACKINTOSH. 

January 29, 1907. 



The Directors of the Paris Missionary Society may be addressed at 
102, Boulevard Arago, Paris, France. 

Basutoland Mission, London Auxiliary, Mrs. Sutherland Taylor. 
Hon. Sec, 57, Mildmay Park, N. 

Barotsiland Mission, London Auxiliary. Hon. Sec, 5, Adamson 
Eoad, South Hamp stead, N.W. 




KING LEWANIKA OF BAROTSILAND, UPPER ZAMBESI. 

Taken at Bulawayo in 1902. 



HER CONSORT, THE MOKWE TUNGA. 



QUEEN MOKWAE. 



Contents 



PART I 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH IN FRANCE 



PAGE 



INTRODUCTION 



3 



CHAPTEE I 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE (1834-1857) 



7 



Childhood of Francois Coillard — Poverty and Hardship — 
La Mere Bonte — Pastor Bost and his family — The Revolu- 
tion of 1848 — Years of Bondage — Glay in the Jura — The 
Call to Mission- work — Paris — Strasburg University — 
Asnieres-les - Bourge s — Ordination. 



Voyage to South Africa — Life at the Cape — Wellington — 
The Sack of Beersheba. 



PART II 



BASUTOLAND (1857-1877) 



CHAPTER II 



ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE (1857-1858) 



31 



ix 



x COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



CHAPTER III 

PAGE 

basutoland: a retrospect (1825-1857) . . .40 

Basutoland and the French Missions — Moshesh — The 
Makololo on the Zambesi — Dr. Philip — MM. Arbousset, 
Gosselin, and Casalis — The Great Trek — Sir Harry Smith — 
Boomplatz — The Defeat of Viervoets — The Withdrawal of 
the Sovereignty — War with the Free State — Moshesh and 
the Trader. 



CHAPTER IV 

FIRST EXPERIENCES AT LERIBE (1859-1861) . . 59 

Leribe — First Experiences — Moshesh and Molapo — Lawless 
Frontier Life — Old Maria, — An Apostate — The Unfrocked 
Priest — An Interrupted Funeral — Nathanael Makotoko — 
Heathen Feasts — Sorcery — Leaving Leribe. 



CHAPTER V 

CHRISTINA MACKINTOSH . . . . .90 

Childhood in Edinburgh — Life in Paris — Betrothal — Marri- 
age in Cape Town. 

CHAPTER VI 

EARLY MARRIED LIFE (1861-1865) .... 102 

Literary Labours — Moshesh and Samson — Dutch Friends — 
An Ex-President — Visit of Dr. Duff — Perils of Waters. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE WAR WITH THE FREE STATE, AND LESAOANA's AFFAD3 

(1864-1866) . . . . . .118 

War with the Free State — Lesaoana's Affair — A Desperate 
Embassy — Adventures on the Frontier — The Storming of 
Thaba Bossio — Wepener's Day — The Broad Road — Panic 
at Leribe — Privations of the War. 



CONTENTS 



XI 



CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

WAR AND EXPULSION FROM BASUTOLAND (1866) . . 142 

Dangerous Illness — A Lonely Ride — The Attack on 

Mekuatling — Expulsion of the Missionaries — Molapo's 
Treachery. 

CHAPTER IX 

EXILE IN NATAL (1866-1868) 

Bishop Colenso — Awakening in Basutoland 
Missions — Work Among Zulus. 



CHAPTER X 

MOTITO AND THE MOFFATS (1868-1869) . . . 166 

Basutoland a British Protectorate — Leaving Natal — Leribe 
— Journey to Bechuanaland and Motito — The Moffat family 
— The Helmore and Price disaster — Kuruman and 
Lo Bengula — Return to Leribe. 



CHAPTER XI 

BASUTOLAND (1869-1875) . .187 

Basutoland once more — Church building — Conversion and 
Death of Moshesh — The Franco-Prussian War — Damaris 
and Rahab — Langalibalele — A Flourishing Work. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE ORIGIN OF THE BANYAI EXPEDITION (1875-1876) . 211 

A Mission from the Basutos to other Tribes — Visit of Major 
Malan — Conference at King William's Town — Disaster of 
M. Dieterlen's Expedition — A Deferred Furlough. 



. 156 
—The American 



xii COILLAKD OF THE ZAMBESI 



PART III 

THE BANYAI EXPEDITION 
CHAPTEE XIII 

PAGE 

THE BANYAI EXPEDITION (1877-1878) . . . 227 

The Expedition starts — Pretoria on Proclamation Day — 
Sir T. Shepstone — Mr. Hofmeyr's Dutch Mission — Wander- 
ing in Mashonaland — Adventure at Masonda — Among the 
Banyai — The Matabele Eaid — Carried Captive to Bulawayo. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MATABELELAND (1878) ..... 254 

Three Months' Captivity — Lo Bengula's Kraal — Servus Ser- 
vorum Dei — Expulsion from Bulawayo. 



CHAPTEE XV 

THE ZAMBESI (1878) ..... 266 

Khama's Town — Journey to the Zambesi— Victoria Falls — 
The Barotsi — Memories of Livingstone — Major Serpa Pinto 
— Deaths in the Desert — A Den of Lions — Poisoners — The 
Eeturn Journey — Mochache the Prophetess — Home again. 



CHAPTEE XVI 

in eueope (1880-1882) . . . . .293 

Campaign on the Continent — Opposition to the Barotsi 
Mission — The policy of faith — " Quelque chose de palpitant " 
— Sympathy in England, Scotland, and elsewhere — " Portu- 
gal embraces you " — Dr. Moffat. 

CHAPTEE XVII 

the gun-war (1880-1885) . . . .298 

The Gun-War — General Gordon — In the midst of Alarms — 
Settlement of Basutoland. 



CONTENTS 



xiii 



CHAPTER XVIII 

PAGE 

THE SECOND EXPEDITION (1884-1886) . . . 312 

Arrival at the Zambesi — Mr. Waddell — Khama — Civil War 
and Anarchy — The Sesheke Mission Station founded — Visit 
to the Usurper — Lewanika returns to power — Second Visit 
to the Capital — Westbeech — Sefula Station founded. 



PART IV 

BAROTSILAND, UPPER ZAMBESI 
CHAPTER XIX 
CHARACTER OF THE BAROTSI . . . 337 

Character of the Barotsi — Magic— Traditions — The Chief- 
tainesses — Craftsmanship — Constitution — Religion — 
Funeral Rites — The Future Life — Marriage. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE BAROTSILAND MISSION (1887-1891) . . . 351 

First experiences — Witchcraft — Boycotting — Brigandage — 
Commerce — The ordeal — Raiding the Mashikulumbwe — 
First reforms — The slave-trade forbidden — Narubutu — Dis- 
comfiture of witch-doctors — Introduction of wheat and 
bananas — Protection of cattle — Conversion of the heir- 
apparent — Death of Mme. Coillard. 



CHAPTER XXI 

BAROTSILAND BECOMES A BRITISH PROTECTORATE (1890- 

1891) 380 

The treaty with the British South Africa Company — First 
overtures of Lewanika — Khama's counsel — The first pitso 
— Opposition of the chiefs — Mr. Lochner's mission — 
Revoking — Treachery of chiefs — White slanderers — Perse- 
cution of missionaries — A crisis — Confidence restored — 
Poetic justice. 



xiv COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



CHAPTER XXII 

PAGE 

BRIGHTER DAYS (1892-1896) . ... 396 

M. Coillard removes to Lealui — A spiritual awakening — A 
journey up-river — Dangerous illness — Return to Europe — 
Overthrow of the Matabele — Arrival of the British Resident. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

FURLOUGH IN EUROPE (1896-1898) . . . 405 

Publication of Sitr le Haut Zambeze — Personal charac- 
teristics — The S.V.M.U., Mildmay and Keswick — Farewell. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

RETURN TO AFRICA (1898-1904) .... 421 

Basutoland revisited — Wonderful progress — Baptism of 
Litia — The last seven years — Accumulated trials — Death 
of many colleagues — Lewanika's visit to the Coronation — 
The Ethiopian treachery — Threatened blindness — Visit to 
the Cape and tour, 1903 — The Drostdy Mission College— 
Return to the Zambesi — " All forsook me " — A last crisis — 
The end — Pioneer days over — Memorial service in Paris. 

APPENDIX I 

SOME PERSONAL TRIBUTES ..... 449 

Mr. P. Lyttelton Gell—Mr. R. T. Coryndon— Rev. Juste 
Bouchet — Rev. A. Mann. 



APPENDIX II 

GLOSSARY ....... 456 

APPENDIX III 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BAROTSILAND AND BASUTOLAND . 458 

IN MEMORIAM 460 



INDEX 



461 



List of Illustrations 



j PORTRAIT OF THE REV. FRANCOIS COILLARD . Frontispiece 

(Photograph by Elliott d- Fry) 

V KING LEWANIKA OF BAROTSILAND, UPPER ZAMBESI ) 
\ QUEEN MOKWAE AND HER CONSORT, THE MOKWE 

tunga . . . Precede Table of Contents 

extremes meet .... Precede Index 

FACING PAGE 

♦KING LEWANIKA AND SUITE IN ENGLAND, 1902 . . 1 

* ASNIERES. HOUSE WHERE FRANCOIS COILLARD WAS BORN 8 

ASNIERES. PEASANT WOMEN WORKING IN THE PLACE 

D'AUJONNIERE . . . . . . 8 

>A chief's mafulo, or temporary residence, grass 

WEAVING. NEAR LEALUI, UPPER ZAMBESI . . 40 

i MORIJA MISSION STATION, BASUTOLAND . . .48 

k BOUTA BOUTE, LERIBE DISTRICT . . . .56 

\BASUTO GIRLS MAKING BREAD AND GRINDING FLOUR . 64 

} A DUTCH FARM, CAPE COLONY . . . .72 

-A STATION ON THE ZAMBESI . . . .80 

xv 



xvi COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

FACING PAGE 

; THE MISSION STATION, LEALUI, UPPER ZAMBESI. SUNRISE 88 
MME. COILLARD, 1880 . . . . .96 
CHILDREN COMING TO SCHOOL. FLOOD TIME. LEALUI, 

UPPER ZAMBESI ..... 104 

.SCHOOL PROCESSION TO WELCOME KING LEWANIKA, NEW 

YEAR, 1902-3. LEALUI, UPPER ZAMBESI . . 112 

MODELLING COMPETITION. MISSION SCHOOL, LEALUI . 120 
THE COURT POOL POSING AS A CRANE. LEALUI, UPPER 

ZAMBESI .... . 128 

• WOMEN MAKING POTTERY. LEALUI, UPPER ZAMBESI . 128 
NATIVE IRON-WORKERS (MATOLELA). UPPER ZAMBESI . 136 
A CHIEF'S WIFE MAKING BOWLS. BAROTSILAND . . 144 
BA-MASHASHA TRIBESMEN, UPPER ZAMBESI . . 152 
A SPEARED EEL. ZAMBESI . . . 160 
TIGER-FISH, SOMETIMES CALLED CAT-FISH, OF THE ZAM- 
BESI ....... 160 

RAPIDS OF THE ZAMBESI ..... 168 

MASHIKULUMBWE . . . . . 176 

MISSION STATION, LEALUI. FLOOD TIME. UPPER ZAMBESI 180 

THE CEREMONIOUS GREETING OF TWO WOMEN . . 184 

THE CHURCH AT LERIBE. INAUGURATED MAY 28, 1871 . 192 

A BASUTO EVANGELIST AND HIS FAMILY . . . 200 

REV. G. WEITZECKER AND BASUTO CATECHISTS . . 200 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 

FACING PAGE 

LERIBE MISSION STATION. THE HOUSE BUILT BY M. 



COILLARD, 1875 . . . . .208 

A TEMPORARY HUT (MAFULO) .... 216 

THE CARAVAN IN THE MACARI-CARI DESERT . . 224 

AKANAGISOA OF SESHEKE ..... 232 

MATABELE GIRLS IN BRIDAL ARRAY . . . 232 
SOUTH RHODESIA. CASTELLATED CRAGS AND CANDEL- 
ABRA EUPHORBIA ..... 236 

A MATABELE WARRIOR. FULL WAR COSTUME . . 240 

A MATABELE WITCH-DOCTOR . . . . 248 

A MATABELE DANCER. PEACE . . . . 256 

PANDA-MATENGA ...... 264 

VICTORIA FALLS ...... 272 

MOKWAE, THE QUEEN, 1885 . . . 280 

KING LEWANIKA AS A WARRIOR .... 280 

NALOLO, UPPER ZAMBESI. QUEEN MOKWAE LEAVING 

CHURCH IN HER STATE COACH . . . 288 
NALOLO, UPPER ZAMBESI. QUEEN MOKWAE LEAVING 
CHURCH IN HER EVERYDAY CONVEYANCE — A CANOE 

DRAGGED OVER THE FIELDS BY OXEN . . 292 

QUEEN MOKWAE OF NALOLO AT HOME . . . 304 

MR. WADDELL TEACHING CARPENTRY . . 312 

1* 



xviii COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

FACING PAGE 

KING LEWANIKA BEFORE HIS COURT HOUSE, APPOINTING 

CHIEFS TO GOVERNMENT POSTS . . . 320 

THE COURT HOUSE, FLOOD TIME .... 324 

LEALUI. KING LEWANIKA'S RETURN, 1902 . 328 

THE ROYAL MUSICIANS. UPPER ZAMBESI . . . 334 

THE NALIKUANDA ...... 344 

A ZAMBESIAN OFFERING HOMAGE TO NYAMBE WITH A 

BOWL OF WATER ..... 348 

ZAMBESI CHIEFS MAKING A NET OF BARK FIBRES . 348 

THE NALIKUANDA ...... 352 

THE PORTALS OF THE MAFULO .... 356 

THE CHIEF NARUBUTU . . . . 360 

MASHIKULUMBWE ...... 368 

THE ROYAL KETTLEDRUMS. UPPER ZAMBESI . . 376 

THE DECISIVE INTERVIEW OF MR. ELLIOTT LOCHNER 
(BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY) WITH KING 

LEWANIKA. JUNE, 1890 .... 384 

KING LEWANIKA LISTENING TO THE PHONOGRAPH. LEA- 
LUI, UPPER ZAMBESI, 1899 .... 392 

NATURE'S GENTLEMAN ..... 400 

A BALUBALE CHIEF AND SLAVES .... 408 
THE GREETING OF INTIMATE FRIENDS, BAROTSILAND, 

UPPER ZAMBESI ..... 412 

THE BIG WAR-DRUMS, UPPER ZAMBESI . . . 412 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE 

IN THE RAPIDS ...... 416 

HAULING CANOES OVERLAND PAST THE RAPIDS . . 424 

MISSIONARY TRAINING COLLEGE OF THE DUTCH REFORMED 

CHURCH . . . . . . 432 

VICTORIA FALLS, SHOWING THE FIRST LINES OF THE 

NEW BRIDGE ...... 440 

VICTORIA FALLS, FROM SOUTH BANK . . . 440 

THROUGH THE RAPIDS ..... 446 

THE GREAT TREE OF SEFULA . . . . 446 

BAROTSI NATIVE POLICE, GOVERNMENT STATION, MONGU . 452 

MAP 



NOTE 

The illustrations, except where otherwise stated, are from photo- 
graphs by M. Coillard. His own portrait is from a photograph by 
Elliott & Fry, Baker Street ; that of Mme. Coillard is by Penabert, 
Passage du Havre, Paris. The photographer of the three Matabele 
photographs is unknown. 



PART I 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH IN FBANGE 
1834-1857 



2 



I profited in the [Jews'] religion, above many my equals in years 
in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions 
of my fathers. 

But when it pleased God, who even from my mother's womb set 
me apart and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me that I 
might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not 
with flesh and blood. — Galatians i. 14-16. 



INTRODUCTION 



FBANCOIS and Christina Coillard, widely separated 
in their birth and upbringing, had a common 
spiritual ancestry in the Scottish brothers, Kobert and 
James Haldane. Their work, and indeed that of the 
French and Swiss Protestant Missions as a whole, owes 
its being to the Haldanes and to the evangelical forces 
they set in motion at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. They were both naval officers, the nephews 
of Admiral Lord Duncan, who brought them up. In 
1796, after they had both retired from the sea, they sold 
their estates in order to start a mission in India, of which 
they themselves were to be members and to bear the 
whole expense. The East India Company forbidding 
this, they turned to their own people, who at that time 
needed the Gospel almost as much as the heathen. 
Indeed, a writer in the Quarterly Review has said that 
"with the exception of France" (then in the throes of 
the Kevolution) " there was not a more infidel country 
on the face of the earth than Scotland between 1790 
and 1800." Their labours were eventually to prove that 
Missions must be not the work of a few consecrated 
ndividuals but the outflow of the whole Church's life. 

With the object of setting up Sunday Schools and 
Mission Halls for the unevangelised masses (then quite 
an innovation) they travelled through Scotland and the 
Islands, even to the Shetlands and Hebrides, preaching 

3 



4 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



with extraordinary effect but amid violent opposition. 
It was through their influence and friendship that the 
father of Christina Coillard, the Eev. Lachlan Mackintosh, 
was brought into the ministry ; and it was under the 
preaching of James Haldane in Edinburgh that his 
children grew up. This was the first link in the 
chain; and the second was Eobert Haldane's visit to 
the Continent in 1816. 

The Reformed Churches of France and Switzerland 
were just then in a deplorable condition, owing to the 
Eevolution in the former, and in the latter to the 
influence of Voltaire and Eousseau, who had come to 
live near Geneva. Ever since the visit of the mystical 
Mme. de Krudener, a small company had been meeting 
there to pray that a teacher might be sent to them. One 
of these was a student, Ami Bost, afterwards pastor 
of Francois Coillard's native village. Mr. Haldane was 
welcomed as the answer to their prayers. He arrived 
in Geneva simply as a private traveller, and invited 
two or three students, to whom he had personal intro- 
ductions, to come and read the Bible with him in his 
rooms. The number gradually increased, and for over 
a year they used to meet three times a week around 
his table, at the head of which he sat with his powdered 
hair and queue. The Epistle to the Eomans was their 
text-book, and his great themes were the Godhead of 
Christ, the plenary inspiration and authority of Scripture, 
and the necessity for regeneration. 

As a result, between twenty-five and thirty students 
and one or two pastors came to know these things as 
realities, but the Venerable Company of Geneva refused 
to ordain the candidates who insisted upon preaching them, 
and withdrew the licences of those who were already 
pastors. In consequence, these young men, all ardent, 
gifted, and highly educated, but rejected from the ministry, 



INTRODUCTION 



5 



were formed into the Evangelical Society of Geneva, 
which is still carrying on its invaluable work. It then 
included, among others, such men as Caesar Malan of 
Geneva, Pyt of the Pyrenees, Olivier, F. Monod, Merle 
D'Aubigne, Felix Neff of Dauphine and the Waldensian 
Valleys, and Ami Bost, already mentioned. Within a 
very few years their labours as travelling preachers 
resulted in a great religious awakening in Switzerland, 
which spread over the French, German, and Italian 
borders. The converts were called in derision momiers. 
Almost all the places then associated with their work 
are still centres of Christian life and work. This Revival 
gave birth to the Paris Missionary Society, founded in 
1828, and to a multitude of other religious and charitable 
undertakings which are still flourishing : indirectly also 
to the Free Churches of France and Switzerland, and 
thus to the Mission Bomande in the Transvaal and 
Lorenco Marquez. 

From Geneva, Eobert Haldane went to Montauban, 
the headquarters of French Protestantism. Here he 
found that the Revolutionists had successfully abolished 
Sunday observance, and had ransacked public and private 
libraries, burning every religious book and every Bible 
they could find. Of the latter, not one copy could be 
found on sale, nor even a New Testament. Through his 
exertions 16,000 were printed, and with the help of 
Henri Pyt recourse was had to the old Reformation 
plan of circulating them from house to house through 
the agency of the Colportage Society then organised. 

It would be impossible to exaggerate the effect of this 
one year's quiet, unofficial labour. " The name of Robert 
Haldane," wrote Frederic Monod, "stands inseparably 
connected with the dawn of the Gospel on the Con- 
tinent of Europe" (i.e., after its eclipse in the French 
Revolution). " The work he began in 1817 has been 



6 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



advancing ever since." Merle d'Aubigne, the historian 
of the Reformation, bears similar testimony. 

"If at the Eeformation Geneva gave something to 
Scotland, if she communicated light to John Knox, 
Geneva has received something in return in the blessed 
exertions of Kobert Haldane." 

His activities ceased only with his death in 1842. 
Little did he dream that the streams of influence he 
was privileged to set in motion were all to converge 
in the life of one little boy, then herding turkeys on 
the fields of France, and were to result in giving 
two spheres of labour to the Church of God, and 
(indirectly) two provinces to the British Empire. 



CHAPTER, I 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE 
1834-1857 

Childhood of Francois Coillard — Poverty and Hardship — La Mere 
Bonte — Pastor Bost and his family — The Kevohition of 1848 — 
Years of Bondage — Glory in the Jura — The Call to Mission- 
work — Paris — Strasburg University — Asnieres - les - Bourges — 
Ordination. 

FRANCOIS COILLARD was born in the village of 
Asnieres-les-Bourges, Province of Berry, Central 
France, on July 17, 1834. In a fragment of autobiography 
written for his friends in France, but unfortunately too 
long for the limits of this book, he has given a fascinating 
account of his early experiences and surroundings ; and 
from this the following details are taken. 

His parents belonged to the peasant class, a term 
which in French covers a great variety of conditions. 
His father was what in England would be called a 
wealthy yeoman, farming his own lands ; his wife, 
Madeleine Dautry, had, moreover, brought him a large 
property. The ancestors of both had given martyrs to 
the Huguenot cause. Many local families had handed 
down the memories of St. Bartholomew and other 
persecutions in their village. It was at Asnieres that 
Calvin had exercised his calling as a lawyer, that his 
reforming influence had first made itself felt and had 
led to the founding of the little Protestant Church. All 



8 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



these traditions, treasured by his mother, were among 
the future missionary's earliest and most cherished recol- 
lections. 

He was the last of seven children, and being more 
than nine years younger than his predecessor, he was 
called by their neighbours le Trop-Tard-Venu (Come-too- 
late), a name which seemed sadly appropriate when, two 
years later, his mother was left a widow and destitute. 
Her husband, a sociable and generous man, had backed 
bills for his friends, and no sooner was he in his grave 
than a pack of creditors came down upon her. Hoping 
to save her children's patrimony, she first sacrificed her 
own estate, which legally she might have kept ; but after 
two or three years' struggling, she had to let the whole 
go — farmstead, lands, and stock. Only a few patches of 
field and vineyard were left, which she had not the means 
to cultivate. Of her elder children, several were already 
married, and crippled as they were by the loss of their 
inheritance, they could do nothing to help her. She 
therefore leased her small remaining property, and the 
cottage containing the remnant of their once beautiful 
furniture, and took a situation as housekeeper and farm- 
wife at the Castle of Foecy fifteen miles distant, where 
lived the managers of a china factory. Her little son, by 
that time six years old, but very small and delicate for 
his age, was sent out to herd the turkeys. "But," he 
says, " children have an extraordinary power of adapting 
themselves to circumstances, and so did I to mine. I 
read to myself in the fields, for I could read already ; and 
I read and re-read the only book I possessed — one of the 
Gospels." 

Two years later, Madame Coillard mere, having saved a 
little capital, returned to Asnieres, where there was an 
excellent Protestant school, for the sake of educating her 
boy, whom, with a mother's insight, she had already 



Ph. F. C] 

ASNIERES. HOUSE WHERE FRANCOIS COILLARD WAS BORN. 




1844] THE COLPORTEURS 



9 



dedicated to the ministry. Here she farmed her few 
acres with her own hands and such help as she could 
command. Phe was a woman of heroic character and 
deep piety, well known for miles round as La Mere Bonte 
(Mother of Kindness). Her cottage was always open to 
the colporteurs, and whilst she entertained them, le petit 
cousin, as he was universally called (all Protestants being 
counted cousins) , was free to feast upon the books which 
filled their packs. 

"Few realise (he wrote) the influence which these 
evangelists of the humble exercise over the people in 
localities like ours. Every night our room used to be 
thronged with people, and the evening would pass in 
singing and serious conversation. These pioneers were 
the first to introduce the singing of hymns, for till then 
nothing was known save the Psalms of David and the 
Paraphrases. Every Eevival has its hymns ; a new 
setting is needed for experiences new to us ; and the older 
I grow the more I am impressed with the importance of 
singing as a means of evangelisation." 

Thus his childhood (as afterwards his manhood) was 
spent amid Kevival activities. This was, perhaps, one 
secret of its dynamic. The coming of a new pastor, 
M. Ami Bost, brought a fresh element into the parish, 
and developed not only his mind, but the two passions of 
his life — the love of church music and of missions. M. 
Bost's example, moreover, taught him that bodies as 
well as souls must be reached and helped. He was a 
musical genius, and his large family inherited his gifts. 
His two youngest sons attended the village school. 
Francois Coillard became their chosen friend, and thence- 
forth all his play-time was spent at the manse until late 
in the evening when his mother returned from her 



10 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



work. There he prepared his lessons, and listened, as 
he says, " to their enchanting concerts, which many an 
audience of the cultured world might have envied." The 
Pere Bost, however, was much more than a musician. 
He was a man of great intellect and practical ability — a 
born Eeformer. "Looking back," says M. Coillard, "he 
produces on my memory the effect of a powerful battery 
brought to bear on our lethargic vine-dressers. He would 
fain have been our Oberlin and our Felix Neff. Every- 
where he found material for reform. The dwellings of 
our peasants were pitiable ; the state of the roads 
especially deplorable." 

M. Bost and his boys might often be seen at work 
mending the paths. The villagers were not at all 
grateful for all his efforts ; they would much rather 
have been let alone. Still less did they tolerate the 
strict discipline and other changes he sought to bring 
into the Church. The Bost family came originally from 
Alsace, where the Lutheran was the prevailing form of 
Protestantism, and the innovations they brought with 
them, their hymns, the choir practices of Mile. Bost, 
the domestic orchestra, the Christmas-trees and Church 
music, the Gloria, the Magnificat, and other anthems 
their pastor (Presbyterian though he was) composed 
for the festivals of the Christian year were denounced 
by the elders as "just Popery." 

" The Pere Bost was not and never could have been 
popular, but Catholics and Protestants alike adored his 
only daughter, Marie Bost. For her, no barriers existed ; 
her ministry of love reached out to all. It exercised 
itself chiefly among the school children and elder girls. 
No influence has more contributed to make me love the 
things of God and to prepare me for my calling as a 
missionary. 



1844] 



THE BOST FAMILY 



11 



"It was then that I first heard missions talked about. 
She charmed us by her stories, and those who had them 
gave their sous. I had none, and I could not ask my 
mother for them for she had none either. ... I often 
cried bitterly about it. One day I noticed our good school- 
master planting cabbages. He had swept up a quantity 
of manure from the road for this purpose. Here was a 
ray of light. Perhaps if I did it for him, I might earn 
a penny for Mademoiselle's collection. The dear, kind 
man understood, turned his barrow over to me, and, my 
work done, he gave me sous. This joy of giving shines 
in my childhood, amid all the mists of far-off memories, 
with a purity which I still delight to look back upon, and 
— let me confess it — which I envy. 

" Missionary ! all the family were that. M. Bost has 
himself related the great meeting of these eleven sons 
(who, as he said, had each a sister !), come from all parts. 
It was really something phenomenal. On the Sunday, 
they all took part in a special service, some by short 
addresses, others by their singing. One entered the 
pulpit, propped on crutches. This was Ami, the 
merchant from Scotland. Another spoke to us of his 
children, his incurables. It will easily be guessed that 
this was John Bost [founder of the famous Asiles 
de la Force] . Another made a no less profound im- 
pression upon me. I heard him called the missionary. 
It was M. Samuel Bost. He showed us the little idols 
worshipped by the heathen. For me it was a memorable 
day. ' Oh, mother,' I said, • how splendid it must be to 
be a missionary ! ' And she answered, ' Yes, my child, 
it is a much finer thing than even to be a pastor.' From 
that time, missionary interest took a new lease of life 
among us. 

" Mile. Bost would lend me little books and say, 
' Francois, read that to La Mere Bonte.' . . . The same 



12 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



ones, read and re-read for the twentieth time, were as 
fresh as ever. But nothing in my youth impressed me 
like the work of Moffat. In the adventures and in 
the spirit of this Christian hero there was something 
fascinating to me. 

" Through the long winter evenings, women would 
come in and bring their work, one her distaff and spindle, 
another her knitting, a third her sewing. Even men 
were there, and le petit cousin read aloud to them. 

" In midwinter, everybody crushes their walnuts on 
various days, and invites friends and relations to a * Bee,' 
in reality to pass the time sociably. A large table would 
be improvised, and all sat round it. The bruised nuts 
were piled up along the centre, and every one husked 
them for the oil [used for lamps]. This business, not 
very attractive in itself, was transformed into quite a 
festivity, which every one took his share in promoting — 
one by his blood-curdling ghost stories, another with 
tales of his military service, a third by the songs he 
would carol forth in a sentimental tremolo, and the 
entertainment closed with a simple repast designed for 
sound appetites. At our own house, and often in those 
of our neighbours, my part was to sing hymns, for I knew 
nothing else to sing, except the ballad of the Wandering 
Jew, which my dear mother had explained to me ; or I 
would retail the missionary stories I had read, to which 
they listened open-mouthed. 1 Can that be true?' — 
'I read it in a book,' was my invariable reply, one 
which proved completely satisfying. 

"These veillees were golden opportunities for doing good, 
and I do not wonder that our friends the colporteurs used 
to join them, as did the schoolmaster and the pastor too. 
For me the association of ideas and tender memories has 
encircled the winter season with a halo of poetry. I used 
to dream of the Frozen North and the Aurora Borealis, 



1846] A MOTHER'S TRAINING 13 



and envied the missionaries in Greenland and the Lapps 
their perpetual snow and ice, as though they too had their 
veillees and walnuts to crack. 

"At my mother's suggestion, I went every day to an 
old bed-ridden dame of over eighty to read the Bible to 
her, the Pilgrim's Progress, or some other good book. 
She appreciated my visits very much, and people got into 
the habit of calling le petit cousin hither and thither to 
read a chapter or a prayer. 

" Brought up most religiously from childhood, this 
religiosity had become a sort of second nature to me. 
But it was mere self-deception. Yet some outward 
changes must have taken place in me at this time, since 
it struck those around me. My mother used to say, 
' Oh, my darling child, if I were only rich enough, you 
should be a pastor ; and if ever I could see you enter the 
pulpit like your cousin Cadier at Pau, it would be the 
finest day of my life.' My two eldest brothers, of whom 
I stood very much in awe, by no means shared these 
sentiments, and thought my mother spoilt me." 

Even now he did all that a child could do to lighten 
his mother's burdens ; sold his pet lamb, and reared 
rabbits in order to pay for his Latin books and school 
stationery, and went to market every week to sell her 
butter, eggs, and cream-cheese. But changes were at 
hand. 

" One day at one of her meetings Mile. Bost told us 
they were all going to leave us. She burst into tears, 
and all of us with her. . . . The dreaded day arrived. It 
was a public calamity. Never had such a spectacle been 
witnessed. Everywhere people were weeping at their 
work, in their cottages. We went home feeling like 
orphans. 



14 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



"By this time I was nearly fourteen. The Bevolution 
of 1848 had broken out. The Bepublic was proclaimed ; 
everywhere in the schools the Marseillaise was taught. 
On a certain day we took part in a great civic ceremony 
[at Bourges] , and amid frantic enthusiasm, planted the 
symbol of what was called Liberty. The tree, however, 
perished, and some unkind wits said, 1 Liberty is dead ! - 
At any rate, there ensued a time of complete anarchy. 
Bands of Socialists roamed over the country, pillaging 
and burning the country seats, farms, and mills. Every 
evening the tocsin sounded, and fresh fires were seen 
lighting up the sky. Panic seized every one. Troops 
occupied the whole district. Patrols of volunteers 
relieved each other every two hours in and around the 
village. These supposed guards were mostly armed with 
forks and scythes. Young as I was, I offered my services 
like every one else, and the neighbours said, ' Le petit 
cousin est brave ! ' 

" To these political agitations public calamities were 
soon added : the potato disease and a terrible famine. 
The bakeries were besieged, and I have often fasted for 
whole days without ever complaining, but our good 
schoolmaster's wife noticed this sometimes, and would 
give me a little food. I cannot help thinking that they 
too were often badly off. 

"The situation became desperate. One evening my 
poor mother burst into tears and said, ' My poor little 
boy, I am beaten. I can struggle no more ; we shall die 
of hunger.' ' Oh, mother,' I said, 'don't cry; I am 
big now, and can earn my living and help you.' And 
indeed I had already begun. For a long time I had been 
going into the vineyard with one of my brothers-in-law. 
I wanted to show them that I too could work." 



Francois Coillard's childhood had come to an end. 



1848] YEARS OF BONDAGE 



15 



The new minister, struck by his precocious talents, and 
with his progress in Latin, interested a wealthy lady who 
had lately come to occupy the Castle at Foecy. She 
offered " to adopt him and push him on." Under- 
standing, as did the minister, that she intended to 
educate him for the pastorate, the mother gave him up, 
though with a breaking heart. The lady, however, 
apprenticed him to her gardener. 

Of the time spent in her service he could never speak 
without a shudder. The old-remembered castle had been 
transformed, the moat filled in, the glacis turned into 
flowerbeds : the Norman turrets fitted with pagoda roofs. 
Small and delicate as he still was, the servants, whose 
drudge he now became, kept him early and late at the 
hardest household tasks, while the daylight hours were 
spent under the gardener, who had conceived an insane 
jealousy of him, and being a Eoman Catholic, vented his 
spite by continually jeering at everything the boy had 
been taught to hold most sacred. 

" I occupied a little attic in a disused workshop of the 
china factory, now empty and silent. There, after a 
well-filled day, when I had given out all the physical 
energy I possessed, I could cry my eyes out with no one 
to see or hear. I often tried to read, but even candle-ends 
were grudged me." 

Here came on a visit a lady who was to play an im- 
portant part in his future life — Mme. Andre- Walther. 
Seeing him in the garden, she spoke kindly to him of his 
home, and hearing he was to be confirmed at the same 
time as her young daughter, she wished to know if he 
were converted. 

" Converted ! . . . This word fell into my heart like a 



16 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



live coal. I knew the word very well, but not the thing. 
I was a good Protestant, anxious to fulfil rightly all my 
religious duties. My Huguenot blood revolted against 
the gibes of the Catholic workpeople, and I retorted on 
them with ardour and conviction. I was proud not 
merely of being a Protestant, but, above all, of being a 
descendant of the Huguenots, and I felt that, like them, 
I would gladly have perished for my Faith — yes, even 
such faith as was in me then. But I felt not the need of 
what they called conversion. I was full of self -righteous- 
ness. The first Communion was to me a Diploma of 
Religion. If everybody was so satisfied with me, why 
should not God be satisfied too? Certainly I was per- 
fectly satisfied with myself. 

" Winter came. The Castle was closed, and its owner 
left for Paris with all the servants, so I was delivered 
over to the tender mercies of the gardener. The work 
was heavy, the weather severe. I was ill-clad, and still 
worse lodged. The wind and frost drove into my garret. 
One day I could bear it no longer, and I wrote to 

Mme. in Paris. The reply brought my immediate 

dismissal." 

A similar place was now found for him with an English 
clergyman and his family, named Kirby, who held the 
historic Castle of La Ferte Imbault and the thirty farms 
comprised in the manor. They liked to surround them- 
selves with Protestants, and their factor was married to 
Francois Coillard's sister. On Sundays he and all the 
farm-hands (many of whom were natives of Asnieres) 
attended a Church of England service conducted in 
French ; and it was thus that he learnt to appreciate 
as he did the Book of Common Prayer. Indeed, one of 
the last requests of his life was to have a copy sent to 
him, his own being worn out. At the time, however, he 



1850] THE FIRST CALL 



17 



was indifferent. His childish piety had given place to 
pride, ambition, and rebellion against his lot. The 
Kirbys were good and kind people, but he could not 
give up his dreams of study. He slept at the top of a 
stone turret on the postern wall, and when they saw that 
his light burnt more than half the night, and sometimes 
found him asleep over his Latin books, they took them 
away and threatened dismissal. All was in vain. At 
last they realised this, and kindly encouraged him to 
become a schoolmaster. He obtained admission to a 
training college at Glay, in the Montbeliard country 
(French Jura), specially founded for young men like 
himself without means. He was now seventeen. 

" I had no ambition for the moment (he says) but to 
study. What I longed for above all was an easy, seden- 
tary life which would enable me to keep my dear mother 
near me and to care for her declining years. 

' ' But the last Sunday of my stay in Asnieres [to take 
leave of the family] the pastor read us an appeal from the 
Paris Missionary Society. It made a deep impression 
upon me. As we came out I said to my mother, ' Why 
should I not become a missionary myself ? ' 

" ' Oh, my child ! ' she exclaimed, ' be anything else 
you like, but not that. You would be lost to me ! ' The 
impression faded by degrees, bu f it did not fade with my 
mother. An agonising presentiment had seized her, and 
as she saw me off at Bourges, she said, amid sobs, ' God 
bless you, my boy, but I beg of you not to be a 
missionary ! ' Again I reassured her, not a little sur- 
prised at her insistence on this point." 

Glay. 

" M. Jaquet, the Director of Glay, was a man of faith 
and prayer. He would sometimes tell us about the 

3 



18 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



founding of the Institute. . . . He was travelling alone in 
the Black Forest, and was praying earnestly, ' Lord, 
what wilt Thou have me to do ? ' He seemed to hear a 
voice from heaven, commanding him to come to the 
help of young men without means, who wished to give 
themselves to teaching and evangelising. But whence 
were the resources to come, for he had not a penny ? 
Then the words came to him which have since become 
the motto of the house — ' UEternel y pourvoira ' (The 
Lord will provide). He hired the large house, which 
later on he bought : the cradle of a work which has made 
very little noise, but which has since reached colossal 
proportions. There he waited. One day a young man 
presented himself, his cap cocked over one ear. He was 
a fiddler, who presided over the dances in a neighbouring 
village, and he wanted to be educated. This was Samuel 
Eolland [the first missionary of the Paris Society] . Soon 
another young peasant appeared. This was Samuel 
Gobat [afterwards the well-known Bishop of Jerusalem]. 
Little by little their number increased, and resources 
increased in proportion. Christians in the neighbour- 
hood began to take an interest in these small beginnings, 
and to bring their contributions. The results fully justi- 
fied the motto of this new Abraham, the spiritual father 
of many children. 

" In this atmosphere of peace and content I was ap- 
parently happy, and yet I felt that something indefinable 
was lacking to me. I had not long been in the house 
when an event occurred which was to prove the turning- 
point of my life. . . . 

" One day we were called. Tante X. [one of the old ser- 
vants of the house who had long been ill] was asking to see 
us. Supported by M. and Mme. Jaquet, she thanked us 
for what we had done for her, and besought us to be 
converted and yield ourselves to the service of God. In 



1851] THE GREAT AWAKENING 19 



the way this old 1 Tante ' spoke there was something so 
personal, pressing, and persuasive as to break up the 
very depths of my being. I felt myself in contact with 
that something which I had already recognised in the 
lives which commanded my deepest homage, and I felt 
I had it not. 

" Probably all these impressions would gradually have 
faded away, but that the following Sunday it pleased God 
to set His seal upon them. M. Jaquet was anything but 
an orator. I found his addresses supremely dull, and I 
wondered that so many worthy folk would come from 
distant villages to profit by them. That day, if I had 
dared, I should not have set foot inside the chapel. I 
was out of humour, and certainly not the least inclined to 
endure the tedium of a sermon. To my great surprise 
M. Jaquet did not preach one, but began to read us a 
little tract. It was a sermon, but of a new kind : Wheat 
or Chaff, by Eyle [afterwards the well-known Bishop of 
Liverpool]. 

"The title in itself struck me. 'Wheat or chaff' — 
what does that mean ? And at every fresh heading this 
question re-echoed more and more solemnly. I wanted 
to stop my ears, to go to sleep, to think about something 
else. In vain ! When the reading was over and the 
question had sounded out for the last time, ' Wheat or 
chaff, which art thou ? ' it seemed to me that a vast 
silence fell and the whole world waited for my answer. 
It was an awful moment. And this moment, a veritable 
hell, seemed to last for ever. At last a hymn came to the 
rescue of my misery. * Good,' I said to myself, ' that's 
over at last.' But the arrow of the Lord had entered 
into my soul. Oh, how miserable I was ! I ate nothing, 
could not sleep, and had no more mind to my studies. I 
was in despair. The more I struggled the more the dark- 
ness thickened. I sought light and comfort in the pages 



20 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



of God's Word. I found none. I saw and heard nothing 
but the thunders of Sinai. ' Your sins : how can God 
ever forgive them ? Your repentance and tears ! You do 
not feel the burden of your sins : you are not struck down 
like St. Paul or like the Philippian jailer. Hypocrisy, 
hypocrisy ! ' insinuated the voice which pursued me. I 
had come to the end of all strength and courage. I saw 
myself, I felt myself lost — yes, lost, without the slightest 
ray of hope. My difficulty was, I wished I knew what it 
could be to believe. At last I understood that it was to 
accept salvation on God's conditions ; that is to say, 
without any conditions whatever. I can truly say the 
scales fell from my eyes. And what scales ! I could 
say, ' Once I was blind, and now I see.' 

" Never shall I forget the day, nay, the moment, when 
this ray of light flashed into the night of my anguish. 
' Believe,' then, means to accept, and accept unreservedly. 
' To as many as received Him, to them gave He power 
— the right to become the sons of God, even to as many 
as believed on His Name.' It is plain, it is positive. 
' 0 my God,' I cried, in the depth of my heart, ' 1 
believe. 1 ... A peace, a joy unknown before, flooded my 
heart. I could have sung aloud with joy." 

The intensely personal character of this experience 
coloured his whole life. From that time it was indi- 
vidual souls he sought, strove with, and prayed over, 
sometimes for years : and especially those who had been 
like himself rooted in self-righteousness and conventional 
religion. 

In a letter dated May 10, 1904 (one of the last he ever 
wrote), he said (to a relative in France) : — 

"As for me, my dear niece, I am growing old. In two months I 
shall be seventy. I feel indeed that it is evening, and when I look 
back I grieve not to have worked more or better. 



1851] THE REVIVAL IN THE JURA 21 



" When we know Jesus we love Him, and desire that everybody 
should know Him and love Him. I often ask myself how it is with 
you in this respect ? The traditional religion which our parents have 
bequeathed to us is worthless and deceptive, if there has not been 
within us the change of heart which is called conversion. If we only 
required of the heathen around us to become good Protestants, to go 
to church, and to perform what are called their religious duties, we 
should have crowds. But we require more than that, or, rather, the 
Lord Himself demands more than that. As to religious forms He 
says, ' Not every one that saith to Me, " Lord, Lord," shall enter into 
the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father in 
Heaven.' " 

The Autobiography continues : — 

" Very tender memories are interwoven with this time 
of my life. There was such life, such freshness among 
the people of this Kevival, which had fallen like a shower 
from heaven over the whole principality of Montbeliard. 
To me this pure and elevated atmosphere was most con- 
genial. I drew deep breaths as of my native air. 

" It was about this time that a new appeal reached us 
from the Societe des Missions de Paris. It knocked 
loudly at my heart's door. To me the greatest obstacle 
was my mother. As the call of God waxed urgent and 
imperious so did my duties to her seem more than ever 
binding. I wrote to my mother . . . [her reply] was a 
cry of anguish, and nearly broke my heart. ... I set 
aside a definite period, during which I would give myself 
to prayer. If this time passed without my mother giving 
her consent, it would be an indication of God's will for 
me, and I would give up the calling once for all. If, on 
the contrary, my mother gave her consent without my 
asking it, this would be an indubitable proof to me that 
God was calling me, and that I must not take counsel 
with flesh and blood. ... I wrote no more . . . but I 
prayed as I had ne er prayed before. The last day had 



22 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



come, when the postman arrived with a letter from my 
mother. 

" * My child,' she wrote, 4 ... I understand now that 
God is calling you. Go, I will not keep you back. I had 
always hoped you would be the staff of my old age, but, 
after all, it was not for myself I reared you. And the 
good God will not forsake me if He sends you to the 
heathen. So go without misgivings.' 

" An arrangement [with her elder children] which set 
her beyond want, left me a certain liberty of action where 
she was concerned. From that time I . . . fully regarded 
the missionary calling as marked out for me. ... I have 
never seriously doubted it, even amid the greatest dis- 
couragements and trials." 

The Kevival in the Jura much resembled the one in 
Wales, only that the Churches and most of the regular 
ministers, though not all, held aloof from it. Every cottage 
had its household meetings. There were no hymn-books 
in those days, but the beautiful compositions of Ca3sar 
Malan, Bost, Olivier and others, set to equally beautiful 
melodies, passed from hand to hand in manuscript, and 
were eagerly caught up by the peasant folk, to whom 
part singing came naturally. From time to time larger 
meetings were held on the mountain-sides, to which 
people flocked from far and wide ; Moravians, and the 
Pietists of Swabia, as well as French and Swiss. It was 
in one of these assemblies that Francois Coillard, being 
called upon to address it, first gave proof of that gift 
which afterwards won for him the name of Chrysostom 
among his fellow-students in Paris. But this was not 
till nearly two years after his conversion. In a quiet 
way he had made no secret of his new joy, and had 
thereby earned the name of momier (Methodist) from the 
other pupils. But strange to say, though his mother 



18541 STRASBURG UNIVERSITY 23 



had trained him from childhood like Samuel to " minister 
in holy things," the moment they became a reality to him, 
his lips seemed to be sealed. Often he asked himself 
in distress how he should ever be able to preach to the 
heathen, and though he overcame this diffidence entirely 
where natives were concerned, to address an audience 
of white people was always a painful ordeal to him. 

He learnt a good deal at this time from the teaching 
of the late J. N. Darby, who was himself travelling just 
then and preaching in the Montbeliard country, but he 
does not seem to have met him personally. 

The Paris Missionary Society which, in accepting him, 
had undertaken his training, placed him under the care 
of M. Jeanmaire of Le Magny, a well-known Lutheran 
pastor (himself one of the fils du Beveil as they called 
themselves) , to begin his theological studies ; and in 
1854 he passed into a seminary in Paris. The change 
from the free country life tried him very much, and, 
moreover, at the end of twelve months he nearly died 
from an attack of typhoid fever, the effects of which 
he felt all his life. Scarcely had he returned to his 
studies when a new crisis arose. The Crimean War had 
just broken out ; to be drawn in the conscription would 
have meant serving twelve years with the colours. To 
save his vocation, the Committee thought it prudent 
to enroll him as a student at Strasburg University at 
the beginning of 1855. For the year he was to spend 
there, they allowed him £32 (800 frs.) to cover every- 
thing, board, lodging, tutorial fees and personal expenses. 
This meant much self-denial and hard work. As will 
be seen, he refunded this outlay to the Committee. The 
year he spent at Strasburg was the most formative of his 
life as far as intellect and character were concerned, but 
to his lifelong regret he left without taking his degree. 
He wished to return for another session and try again. 



24 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



The Paris Committee, however, were just then organising 
a Training College of their own, and they thought it best 
for him to stay at home and study under his own pastor 
till this College was opened. It was, therefore, in his 
own village that he served his true apprenticeship to the 
cure of souls. In the accidental absence of the pastor, 
he was several times called upon to conduct services, and 
thus his mother had the joy of hearing his first sermon. 
Soon afterwards, the pastor being called to another 
living, the whole parish begged that young Coillard 
might fill the vacant place till another was appointed, 
and he remained for over a year, carrying on his classical 
and Biblical studies, and working hard in the parish, 
where his singing classes, Bible-readings, and prayer- 
meetings became extremely popular. According to the 
present pastor of Asnieres, he brought the breath of 
Kevival with him from Montbeliard ; and almost all who 
are now pillars of the little Church, were either brought 
in at that time or influenced toward it as children. 
Throughout life he exercised a wonderful power over 
the young, especially in Europe. 

Seven years of student life were completed by eight 
months' special training at the newly founded Maison 
des Missions in Paris. M. Casalis, one of the three 
pioneer missionaries of Basutoland, had been recalled to 
be its Director. Basutoland, not as yet under the pro- 
tection of any European Power, was then the sole mission- 
field of the Paris Society, which, as an outcome of the 
Kevival, had been founded in 1828, and had actually begun 
work in Africa three years later. 

His private diaries between 1854 and 1858 in their 
intensity of feeling and expression recall those of Brainerd, 
and sometimes Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of 
Sinners. Nothing seems too hard to say against himself. 
" I see no sin around me, however base and appalling, 



1854] STUDENT LIFE IN PARIS 25 



that I do not see breaking out in my own heart." In 
particular he bewails a fiery and at times ungovern- 
able temper; otherwise his outward conduct was then 
and always irreproachable, but he had now to learn that 
his particular temperament has special perils of its own, 
that there are possible depths equal to possible heights, 
and that the more the spiritual life develops the greater 
is the area exposed to assault. During his life in Paris 
he owed very much to the ministry of Adolphe Monod 
and to the friendship of a Wesleyan minister, M. Hocart. 

These years of study were a long and bitter struggle 
with poverty. Partly on this account, but chiefly 
because he always believed fasting to have a real spiri- 
tual efficacy, he denied himself both food and sleep to a 
degree which at one time told upon his health. Some 
instinct seemed to teach him that the life to which he 
was called would be impossible without the most com- 
plete mastery of self. " I keep under my body and bring 
it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I 
myself should be a castaway. 11 These words recur from 
his earliest to his latest journals. Not that he was by 
nature ascetic — quite the reverse. He had a great delight 
in all things beautiful or enjoyable. "I really think," 
he wrote at the age of twenty, " that if I could afford it, 
I should deny myself nothing." Instead, he learnt to 
"covet earnestly the best gifts." 

Jouknal F. C. : — 

" Paeis, January 7, 1854. 
" I don't know why it is, but it is a feeling I can't get 
rid of; my longings take me sometimes to S. America 
[i.e., Patagonia], sometimes to New Zealand: to any 
country, in a word, where no missionary has ever been 
and where none ever wished to go. Just in the same 



26 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



way, when I think of that West African country, where 
the climate allows Europeans to live only a few years 
at most, I feel irresistibly drawn to it. Why? I ask 
myself if perhaps pride has not a great deal to do with it. 
At any rate, it is not in the least to wish to make a name 
for myself ; no, no. I would wish rather to work in the 
shade, under the eye of my Divine Master alone, and 
under His Divine Protection, and not under the gaze and 
protection of a multitude of Christians. But here, perhaps, 
is the very citadel of pride. 

" February 15, 1854. 
" Never have I felt more ardent desires to go and carry 
the Gospel to the poor heathen : and yet I fear I deceive 
myself, for every time I think of the material sufferings 
and hardships awaiting me, I cannot help a feeling of 
fear; if I see myself surrounded by serpents, facing a 
crocodile, pursued by a lion, a hysena, a panther, or any 
other ferocious beast, I feel my heart sink and I say 
to myself : ' If you feel so much afraid already, when, 
sheltered from all these dangers, the very thought of 
them appals you like this, what will it be later on ? ' . . 
Yes, looking only to myself, it would be perfectly im- 
possible for me to become a missionary; but looking to 
Him who has called me, I feel my courage and my 
desires revive. 

"February 28, 1854. 
" I can but say, 0 my God, that I give myself wholly 
and without any reserve to Thyself. And the greatest 
grace I can ask of Thee is, 0 deign to send me to some 
place where Thy missionaries have never yet been able 
to go, where these brothers whom I love because I love 
Thee wander far from Thee. ... I present myself to 
Thee once more to-day. 0 my God, accept the sacrifice 



1855] A TIME OF CRISIS 27 



I offer Thee, and make of me a workman after Thine 
own heart. 

" Strasbueg, May 10, 1855. 
"Iam passing through a painful crisis. Sometimes I 
believe, sometimes I doubt, and often I deny. My 
Christianity has become very obscure. I no longer see 
anything clearly. I believe that up till now I have been 
too credulous, and now I see that the whole edifice of 
my faith must be begun again, and rebuilt from top to 
bottom. 

''Monday, May 13, 1855. 
" I have just been listening to the most eloquent and 
edifying sermon I ever heard at Strasburg from the 
Jesuit Father, De la Vigne, at the Cathedral, on the 
Divinity of Jesus Christ. He took for text ' And this is 
life eternal, that they might believe in Jesus Christ whom 
Thou hast sent ' (sic) . 

"May 29, 1855. 
" Yesterday evening I went to the Synagogue, and I 
came out heart-broken. For the first time, perhaps, I 
have experienced a genuine love, a real pity for this 
people of God. Thence to the Cathedral, where I heard 
the end of Pere De la Vigne' s sermon on Suffering and 
Acceptance of Suffering." 

[The three foregoing entries mark three noteworthy 
features of his life, viz., the time of doubt and distress, 
the course of addresses given by Pere De la Vigne, which 
did more than anything else at that time to settle his 
faith, and the awakening of his lifelong sympathy for the 
Jews. And here it may be said that as a student he 
particularly devoted himself to the Hebrew language.] 



28 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



JOURNAL F. C. : — 

" Asnieres, December 5, 1855. 
"I have sold my field to my cousins, Coillard les 
Doubles, for 800 frs. (d932). Undoubtedly I shall offer 
this small fortune to the Paris Society." 

This was the sum of which he had already written 
from Strasburg (December 28, 1854). 

Letter to the Paris Committee : — 

" As to the necessary means, you know, sirs, that . . . 
I am poor and so are my relations, but in my heart I 
have already devoted to the Lord the little that I possess, 
and to-day I place it at the disposal of the Committee. 
It is a small inheritance which I have received from an 
aunt, and which, sold, will maintain me for at least a 
year at Strasburg. ... I offer you all I have, and . . . 
I shall still be just as rich as before." 

He was ordained in Paris at the Oratoire on May 24, 
1857. The concluding words of his address were 
these : — 

" Pray for me that I may be faithful to my Master, and 
faithful unto death ! Pray, oh pray, all and earnestly, 
that I may grow grey in His service, and that He may 
grant me the joy of seeing my ministry close only with 
my death." 



PART II 

BASUTOLAND 
1857-1877 



Through waves, through clouds and storms 
God gently clears the way 
Wait thou His time ; so shall the night 
Soon end in blissful day. 

When He makes bare His arm 
Who shall His work withstand ? 
When He His people's cause defends 
Who, who shall stay His hand ? 



CHAPTEE II 



AKRIVAL AT THE CAPE 
1857-1858 

Voyage to South Africa — Life at the Cape — Wellington — The Sack 
of Beersheba. 

AT the time of its foundation in 1828-30, the Paris 
Missionary Society, being Protestant, was not 
allowed to work in any of the French colonies, and 
had to seek its sphere in a country then unoccupied 
by any European Power — namely, Basutoland. South 
Africa was therefore Francois Coillard's destination. 

The party with which he was to sail, consisting of 
himself and the Daumas family who were returning to 
Basutoland, embarked on the Trafalgar, a sailing vessel 
bound for Madras, on September 1, 1857. The voyage 
to the Cape lasted ten weeks, during which dead calms 
succeeded to violent storms that drove them on to the 
Island of Fernando Morano, off the coast of Brazil. 
Most of the passengers were officers, rejoining their 
regiments in India, where the great Mutiny had just 
broken out. The French missionaries were treated as 
so many Jonahs, (a superstition common at that time 
and not quite extinct now among sailors), and were 
held responsible for the protracted miseries of the 
voyage. The Trafalgar was very badly found, reeked 
with bilge-water and swarmed with cockroaches {coc- 

3X 



32 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



querodges as M. Coillard picturesquely spells them), and 
rolled so badly that their berths were never dry even 
in calm weather. Indeed, one is tempted to believe 
that convictions which could survive such a voyage 
were not likely to be shaken by any after-experiences. 

Already that activity of love betrays itself, which 
seemed to increase all his life. Too timid to invite 
rebuffs, he rarely made advances, but those whom he 
could help seemed irresistibly drawn to pour out their 
hearts to him, as a well-known and wealthy resident 
of Natal, suffering from acute melancholia, did now for 
hours and daj^s together. 

" Poor Mr. E. ! " (he wrote). " I suffer for his suffer- 
ings. Everything seems nothing (tout s'efface) in the 
presence of a soul to be saved. How difficult it is to 
do good ! " 

Another entry runs : — 

" . . . The missionary must provide himself with 
this and that," they say. " . . . . Oh, why cannot I 
start like the first disciples, without purse or scrip? — a 
knapsack on the back, and a stick in the hand." 

The Trafalgar touched Cape Town on November 6, 
1857. Here M. Arbousset (one of the three founders 
of the Basuto Mission in 1833) came to meet him and 
his companions, and to warn them not to start for the 
interior as yet, because of the disturbed state of Basuto- 
land, which he had left on the verge of war with the 
Orange Free State. He himself returned almost imme- 
diately to his post at Morija, but scarcely had he arrived 
there when the war broke out in earnest. 

The Mission party could not leave for Basutoland till 
January 27, 1858. Till then they received hospitality 
from various friends. 

Life in the Cape peninsula, until the opening of the 
Suez Canal, was extraordinarily interesting and varied ; 



1857] CAPE SOCIETY 



33 



especially at this time (1857-8) — that of the Indian 
Mutiny. The great pro-consul, Sir George Grey, who 
transformed South Africa from a quasi-military colony 
into a fully civilised State, had recently arrived there. 
It was the half-way house to almost everywhere : to 
India, China, and Japan ; to the Dutch Indies, to 
Australia, New Zealand, and to the Pacific Isles. All 
the ships plying between England and these places 
stopped at Cape Town, usually for a few days at least. 
Officers and officials of all nationalities from the Far 
Eastern settlements made it their sanatorium, and these, 
with the English and Dutch colonists, formed innumer- 
able social circles. With them came their servants : 
Malays from the Dutch Indies, stately Hindoos; China- 
men, coolies, and negroes from the West Coast. The 
missionaries formed an equally varied company : on the 
one part the residents— English, French, German, 
American, Dutch ; on the other the visitors, pioneers 
of the East, the Antipodes, or the South Sea Isles; 
either on their way thither, or taking furlough. Thus 
the most earnest and enthusiastic workers were con- 
stantly crossing each other's path. 

In spite of the hardships and dangers these pioneers had 
then to encounter, and the opposition of many of their 
own countrymen abroad, these were, perhaps, the palmiest 
days of Missions. Almost everywhere they enjoyed the 
moral support of their own Governments and of large and 
powerful sections of their compatriots at home. The 
Prussian Government was frankly pietistic. In France, 
under the Second Empire, the Protestants were firmly 
upheld, partly from motives of policy, and partly through 
the influence of Guizot and other Protestant Ministers 
of State. As for England, her official representatives in 
Africa proclaimed her loudly as a Christian nation and 
the champion of the native races. Hottentots and Kaffirs 

4 



34 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



were flocking to the schools. Hope and enthusiasm pre- 
vailed everywhere. Dr. Philip, the Director of the Lon- 
don Missionary Society, had for many years been chief 
adviser to successive Governors. They had yet to learn 
that violence may be curbed and education accepted, 
and a certain number of individuals regenerated, but 
that the corruptions and superstitions of centuries take 
centuries to uproot. All honour to those who showed 
the way. 

As in most newly settled countries, the population, 
white and black, was constantly in movement. People 
whose homes were at vast distances apart, if they had 
common interests, knew each other intimately, since the 
lack of inns obliged all, in turn, to give each other hospi- 
tality, often for days and weeks together. Thus young 
Coillard was entertained by a Mr. Morton, at the Obser- 
vatory, " who," he wrote, " would not let me leave with- 
out making me accept forty books, in Greek, French, and 
English." 

This letter, which was addressed to the Eev. — Dieny, 
his friend and pastor at Asnieres, goes on : — 

"... I never saw such swarms of children in my life 
as at Cape Town. . . . The Malays live in low, dark, 
unhealthy houses, wear long white robes, and practise 
their own rites (they are Moslems). ... It is infamous 
that they should be allowed to do this in the town. . . . 
I was walking by the sea-shore when the wind brought 
me a stench I did not expect in that place. Eight and 
left of me were multitudes of dogs, some sleeping, others 
gnawing carcases which lay about the sand, others sniff- 
ing, roaming about and looking at me in astonishment. 
Here and there I saw a little dome of earth, surmounted 
by a slate and decorated with a few green branches, or 
heaps of stones of all sizes, surrounded with rubbish and 



1858] A MOSLEM CEMETERY 35 



carrion, the pasturage of birds of prey. I was in the 
midst of a Mohammedan cemetery ! It was almost 
night. I cannot express the sensations that laid hold 
of me. 

{Jan. 20, 1858.) " I seek neither adventures nor ease. 
What I wish, what I desire is to labour with a single 
heart at my Master's work in humility, and completely 
lost sight of, if need be." 

During this time of waiting he paid a visit to Welling- 
ton in order to arrange about his waggon and team. This 
town is the centre of a district which has been chiefly 
colonised by French Huguenots, and where the mission- 
aries of the Paris Society have always been received with 
warm welcome from their descendants in the Dutch 
Eeformed Church. 

Here an incident took place, trifling in itself, which 
had no small effect on M. Coillard's future career. He 
went there to meet a colleague just arrived with his family, 
from the interior : in other words, at the end of six 
months' gipsying through a waterless and almost unin- 
habited desert. But this the young man, in his inex- 
perience, did not make allowances for. On the 
outspansplaat, just behind the coloured people's church, 
he found a torn and battered waggon, from which 
emerged eight or nine children, barefoot, ragged, shock- 
headed, and far from clean. The Lady Poverty is not 
the best of nursemaids and these poor little things had 
no other. He was perfectly horror-stricken. " Is this 
what it means to be a missionary?" he asked himself. 
Till then he had thought his own fastidiousness was a 
worldly impulse to be mortified : but from that moment 
he made up his mind, come what might, never to tolerate 
negligence either in his person or his household, and he 
never did. Only those who know how hard it is, living 



36 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



in the wilds, to keep up to even the simplest standard of 
decent living, can appreciate this resolve, and the con- 
stancy with which it was carried out in an exhausting 
climate, and often with no settled dwelling-place. 

" M. Coillard had a nickname among the station 
people," writes his successor at Leribe (Basutoland) . 
" They used to call him Rama Khethe, i.e., the father of 
neatness : a very becoming name. He wanted every- 
thing on the station to be clean and neat ; he urged the 
Christians to have neat houses, and to be careful about 
their clothes. He wanted the manners of Christians, 
and their moral conduct also, to be neat. Of all that, he 
gave them a striking example, for he was always well- 
dressed, spotless, very particular about clothing and 
manners. He was a gentleman and wanted people to 
be so." 

In this respect Mme. Coillard was, if possible, more 
determined than he was. " Even during our long explo- 
rations," he once said, " we always had the table laid 
properly once a day at least, and paid each other the 
compliment of smartening ourselves up (de /aire un bout 
de toilette) if at all possible." Mme. Mabille wrote: " I 
shall always remember a conversation I had with Mme. 
Coillard a few hours after her arrival at Morija, when she 
first came into the country. ... ' If we want to raise 
the Basutos,' she said to me, ' we must start from a very 
high standard, and never allow ourselves to sink to their 
level.' They certainly succeeded to a very high degree 
in elevating the moral tone of their surroundings. My 
husband and I used to admire the air of distinction of the 
Leribe Christians." 

However, this is anticipating. On January 27, 1858, 
he left the Cape alone with three waggons, his own and 
those of MM. Pellissier and Daumas, who were to rejoin 
him at Wellington, and travel with him to the interior. 



1858] THE SACK OF BEERSHEBA 37 



At Ceres they met the Eev. Mr. Vos, of Tulbagh, whose 
Dutch congregation was already doing much to encourage 
missions. The journey to Basutoland took four months, 
and owing to the disorganised state of the work after the 
Boer War, another four months elapsed before they could 
leave their waggons and settle down to work. 

F. Coillard to M. Casalis (Director in Paris, and pre- 
viously of Basutoland). 

" Bethulie, May 6, 1858. 
"... The rumours of war carrying destruction every- 
where, taking reality here, will have already reached you 
in Paris, I think. 

* * * * * 

" Already Beersheba exists no longer: three hundred 
inhabitants of this village, faithfully following their 
beloved missionary, have come to seek refuge here ; the 
majority are women, widows weeping over the massacre 
of their husbands, others their imprisonment ; mothers 
deprived of their children ; and children parted from their 
parents. All the fugitives here are wandering in the 
mountains, without food or shelter. Truly, it is a heart- 
breaking spectacle. 

" You . . . can imagine what your young pupil felt 
and thought when last Sunday, after the service, all the 
escaped from the taking of Beersheba came, with deep 
emotion, to salute their missionaries, and to ask for New 
Testaments to replace those which the Dutch farmers 
had taken from them and destroyed. 

" The venerable missionary of this ruined station, after 
having lost all his cattle and other things, no longer feels 
safe even here. . . . 

" M. Cochet is almost a prisoner in his own dwelling, 



38 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



so are all the other brethren : all communications with 
them are impossible. Only God can help them. . . . 

" Morij a no longer exists. The station was attacked a 
few days ago, the houses burnt, and amid the ruins 
nothing, they say, is left standing except the newly 
dedicated church and the house of M. Maeder. 

"What has become of the missionary? No one 
knows. . . . Everything that belonged to the chief, as 
well as to the missionary, has been sold by auction, 
even the waggon which is the property of the Society. 
. . . Perhaps the work had never been in a more flour- 
ishing state everywhere . . . and now suddenly . . . 
everything seems destroyed." 

In reality M. Arbousset had rejoined his sick wife and 
his daughters in the mountain cave to which he had 
taken them at the outset of hostilities, and from which 
he witnessed this destruction. The money realised by 
the auction of his goods was paid into the treasury of 
the Orange Free State. Sir George Grey, the Governor, 
afterwards prevailed upon the latter to give £100 in 
compensation for it. 

The causes which led to these happenings must be told 
in another chapter. Without knowing something of 
South African history in relation to missions, one can 
form no idea of the electric atmosphere into which the 
neophyte stepped from the deck of the Trafalgar, and of 
the truly epic character of the last century in Africa. In 
the perpetual conflict of races, a fury of self-interest, 
of blood-thirstiness, and riot was opposed by a fury of 
righteous indignation, and of zeal not always according 
to knowledge. Against the background of dark and 
primitive passions — and of noble passions, too — this 
life was quietly to develop ; and at different times it 
was his privilege, within his own circle of influence, to 



1858] THE KINSHIP OF EVENTS 39 



reconcile many of these warring elements, not only to 
himself, which was comparatively easy, but to God, and 
(hardest of all) to each other. 

How this was accomplished, the following pages must 
show. As a Bechuana chief once remarked: "One 
event is always the child of another, and we must never 
forget the genealogy." 



CHAPTEE III 



BASUTOLAND— A RETROSPECT 
1825-1857 

Basutoland and the French Missions — Moshesh — The Makololo on the 
Zambesi — Dr. Philip — MM. Arbousset, Gosselin and Casalis — 
The Great Trek — Sir Harry Smith — Boomplatz — The Defeat of 
Viervoets — The Withdrawal of the Sovereignty — War with the 
Free State — Moshesh and the Trader. 

THE important work of the French Protestants in 
South and Central Africa has not been fully realised 
in England, outside a very limited circle ; partly from 
their nationality, partly from the fact that it is carried on 
in two semi-independent native states, namely Basuto- 
land and Barotsiland. 

Francois Coillard spent over twenty years in each, 
and the task he accomplished in both cannot be properly 
understood without some reference to what went before. 
Those to whom the history of Basutoland is very familiar 
will understand that the only thing here attempted is to 
outline a few events which had far-reaching effects on 
that history, and consequently on M. Coillard's career, 
and they will not need to be told how much has been 
left out. 

The vicissitudes of this little native state nestling 
among the Drakensberg Mountains, westwards of Natal, 

40 



1825] THE BANTU TRIBES 



41 



afford the clue to much that has happened in South 
Africa. Indeed for nearly half a century, their great 
chief Moshesh held the key to the South African 
problem, much as the Sultan of Turkey holds the key of 
the Eastern question ; and the conflict for supremacy 
raged round his mountain stronghold of Thaba Bossio. 

The Basutos belong to the Bantu race, which is 
believed to be of mixed African and Arab parentage, and 
which in the temperate and fertile tablelands of South 
Africa forms a very fine race. Among them is found 
brilliant intelligence, organised government, a sense of 
honour, justice, loyalty, and a high regard for family 
ties, as they understand them. 

Two contrasting conditions prevailed among the Bantus, 
the military and the civil. The military tribes were 
mainly the Zulu and the Matabele, also the Korannas. 
They lived by plunder, their young men were all drilled 
and were not allowed to marry till they were thirty. Till 
then they had to " wash their spears," that is to exter- 
minate their neighbours. Only those were spared who 
would become soldiers, and they had few industries and 
despised agriculture : all their wealth was in cattle. 

The civil tribes were almost or quite as fond of fighting 
as the military, but their method with conquered foes was 
not to destroy but to absorb them. Such were the 
Bechuanas and the Basutos. These also respected and 
practised agriculture and other arts of peace. 

It is a matter of history that Christianity has really 
found a home and influenced the national life only among 
the civil tribes (as, for instance, the Basutos, Bechuanas, 
and Fingoes) . Many Zulus and Matabele have become 
Christians, and there are no finer ones among the 
Africans ; but they could not share the military life and 
counsels of their tribe ; and even then, there were few 
conversions until the great chiefs had been conquered 



42 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



(Dingaan, Cetewayo, Lo Bengula), and the tribal power 
broken up or modified. 

In the first half of the nineteenth century the military 
tribes had possessed themselves of all the best lands. 
The Zulus were in the rich valleys of Natal, the 
Matabele in those between the Orange River and the 
Limpopo. The Bechuanas had scattered themselves 
over the barren, waterless plains to the north of Cape 
Colony, where they lived by hunting and by leading 
their cattle to the scarce underground reservoirs of 
water. The Basutos, under their great chief Moshesh, 
had saved their national existence by their own valour, 
but they had been forced to entrench themselves in 
the narrow strip of country they now inhabit, which is a 
natural fortress. 

About the same time, another Basuto warrior, 
Sebitoane, having decided to seek a home beyond 
the reach of the Matabele, started for the north with 
all the tribesmen he could muster, accompanied by 
their families. Fighting their way across Africa, 
they crossed the Zambesi at length, and founded the 
Makololo Empire in Barotsiland about the year 1825. 

Among all these tribes, the ministry of Francois 
Coillard was to leave its mark at different times. 

Already, in 1836, mission work had begun among 
most of the Bantu tribes. Dr. Philip, then the Director 
of the London Missionary Society, was a man of large 
and warm heart, and statesmanlike breadth of view. 
Hence, not content with what his own Society was 
doing, he stirred up others to the work ; and in 1828 
he visited France to enlist the sympathies of the newly- 
formed Societe des Missions Evangeliques de Paris. 
In 1831, its three pioneers, MM. Lemue, Holland, 
and Bisseux, arrived, and received a warm welcome not 
only from the English Christians of the Cape, but from 



1833] THE CHIEF MOSHESH 43 



many descendants of the French Huguenots, who now 
belonged to the Dutch Eeformed Church. Some of 
the latter begged M. Bisseux to stay with them and 
teach their Hottentot servants, which he consented 
to do. He died only in 1897, working to the last and 
surrounded by the honour and affection of the Church he 
had built up in Wellington. 

At that time Dr. Moffat's station of Kuruman, 
Bechuanaland, was the advance post of missions. 

MM. Lemue and Bolland went still farther north to 
the Bahurutsi in the great Kalahari desert, but the 
raids of the Matabele warriors drove them away almost 
immediately. Seeking a refuge for the remnant of 
this tribe, now broken by the ravages of Mosilikatse, 
the Matabele chief, they found it at Motito in Bechuana- 
land, eighteen miles from Kuruman. Motito thus 
became the first mission station of the Protestant 
Church of France. 

News in those days travelled slowly, and when the 
next party, MM. Gosselin, Casalis and Arbousset, 
landed at the Cape in 1833, expecting to join the 
others, they were distressed to learn what had hap- 
pened, and wondered what they themselves should do. 

Providentially their steps were directed to Basutoland, 
where a highly intelligent and courageous people dwelt, 
secure alike from the Matabele and the Zulus. Their 
chief was Moshesh, the ablest native ruler South Africa 
has ever produced. He was born about 1786 near the 
Eiver Thlotsi in the Leribe district, of which M. Coillard 
was afterwards to be the missionary. Though he was 
not the rightful chief, his transcendent ability had 
brought him to that position. He with another young 
man, Makoniane, had formed the idea of building up 
a great Basuto Empire, as powerful as the two which 
under their chiefs, Mosilikatse and Tchaka, threatened 



44 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the Basuto on either side. This was about 1821. 
They succeeded, and gave the Basutos rest from their 
enemies. The sway of Moshesh extended from the 
Drakensberg Mountains westward to the Modder Kiver, 
i.e., nearly to Bloemfontein, which did not then exist. 
Many remnants of other broken tribes, with their chiefs, 
came and entreated to "dwell under his wings," as 
they said. All these he received kindly, and granted 
them space to feed their cattle. In return they helped 
him to defend his territories, just as Abraham did for 
the Hittites. The Basutos used the same expression 
about this custom as the one in Genesis : "to dwell 
among them as a stranger." It will be remembered 
that the children of Heth were unwilling to sell their 
land to the stranger, even so much as a grave for 
Abraham's wife. Just so, the Basutos did not under- 
stand alienating the land of the tribe, they only lent 
it ; and it is on those terms that all foreigners live among 
them to this day. This was the source of all the 
misunderstandings and wars with the white men who 
afterwards settled on the lands which Moshesh claimed 
as part of his domain. He always said he had only 
lent it ; they maintained he had given it out and out. 

During the wars many Basutos had taken refuge in 
Cape Colony. Now that security had returned, they 
began to flock back, and from them Moshesh heard 
wonderful tales of the skill and wealth of the white man, 
proved by the cattle and goods they had brought back as 
wages. He heard too that some of the white men 
were willing to teach the blacks, and he decided at 
once to secure this benefit for his people if he could. 
It was the wisest move he ever made. 

A neighbour of his, Adam Kok, chief of the Griquas, 
living north of the Orange Eiver, knew Dr. Philip, 
and to him in 1833 Moshesh sent a herd of cattle, 



1835] BASUTO MISSION BEGUN 45 



begging him to obtain some white teachers with it. 
The first herd was stolen on the way, but Moshesh 
sent another with a still more urgent message. This 
reached Dr. Philip at Cape Town, just at the same time 
as the three French missionaries landed. Such an evi- 
dent answer to the prayers for guidance they had offered 
by the sea amid the rocks of Green Point could not be 
disregarded. They went to Adam Kok's town, Philip- 
polis, and he gave them guides who brought them to 
Basutoland, a country then unknown except to a few 
hunters. Moshesh welcomed them, and at once assigned 
to them the station of Morija. Two years later M. 
Casalis established another at Thaba Bossio itself, the 
capital of the chief, a natural fortress which has never 
been taken. In formation it is exactly like the Lilien- 
stein on the Elbe, which Napoleon could never capture. 

In 1835 M. Bolland left Motito, came to Basutoland 
with a number of refugees, the victims of Mosilikatse's 
ravages, and built up a fine station called Beersheba. 
Many Basuto Christians came to settle there who did 
not want to expose themselves to the persecutions and 
temptations of living in the midst of the heathen. 

Never did a mission begin under happier auspices. 
Chiefs and people welcomed the trio ; the climate was 
admirable, the scenery lovely, the soil fertile, building 
materials and labour abundant. The Gospel was preached, 
the people were taught building and improved methods of 
agriculture, to sow wheat, to plant trees, especially fruit 
trees, and vegetables. The latter they have never taken 
kindly to. Only two or three years ago a Basuto said, 
"You must have a great deal of famine in your country 
to know so much about roots." They look upon roots as 
the last refuge of the destitute ! 

Moshesh sent his sons to the Mission schools, where 
they showed great intelligence. Several of them were 



46 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



baptized, Letsie, Molapo, Masupha, and others ; and for 
many years their profession seemed perfectly sincere. 
The people loved reading, and as soon as the language 
had been reduced to writing they were supplied with 
books from the Mission press, which they bought most 
eagerly. Thus the knowledge of Christianity spread 
rapidly. Perfect security of life and property prevailed ; 
and the Basutos were industrious and prosperous. 

Moshesh himself did not become a Christian till a few 
months before his death; but he was quite willing and 
even anxious that his people should be converted. A 
Quaker gentleman, Mr. James Backhouse, who visited 
him in 1839, heard him exhort his assembled chiefs 
as follows : — 

" You say you will not believe what you do not understand. Look 
at an egg. If a man break it, there comes only water and a yellow 
substance out of it, but if it be put under the wings of a fowl there 
comes a living thing from it. This is incomprehensible to us, and yet 
we do not deny the fact. Let us do like the hen. Let us place these 
truths in our hearts, as the hen does the egg under her wings, let us 
sit upon them and take the same pains, and something new will come 
of them." 

MM. Arbousset Casalis and Gosselin were in truth, 
as M. Coillard has called them, giants. Gosselin was an 
artisan, a man of remarkable character and ability. He 
laid the foundation for the present industrial develop- 
ment of the Basutos. M. Casalis had been trained by 
Haldane's disciple, Henri Pyt (see Introduction). He 
possessed a wonderful sympathy with the native mind ; 
and also literary gifts of a high order, not only in French, 
but in the Basuto tongue, which he reduced to writing 
and endowed, at least in part, with the Word of God. 
As for M. Arbousset, it is difficult to speak of him 
without seeming to exaggerate. Besides being a fine 
classical scholar, he was a man of the loftiest character, 



1836] ARBOUSSET'S EXPLORATIONS 47 



enormous practical ability and personal magnetism. He 
it was who in company with M. Daumas first explored 
Basutoland (1836), and published his important dis- 
coveries both in French and English. In particular, 
he discovered and named the Mont-aux-Sources, in 
which the Orange and four other great rivers of Africa 
take their rise. He stamped his own character upon 
the Basuto Mission, strenuous and thoroughly masculine. 
M. Arbousset had of course the defects of his qualities. 
He was something of an autocrat. He believed in his 
Mission as absolutely as did the Hebrew prophets, and 
the natives regarded him with the same awe. His 
threats, his prophecies, his blessings they expected to 
see literally fulfilled. Once in the hour of a national 
crisis he was preaching to a vast congregation in the 
open air. " If this nation does not repent," he ex- 
claimed, " God will break it as I break this egg," and 
flung one from the pulpit. The egg, however, falling on 
the soft, grassy sand, did not break. " I perceive God 
still has purposes of mercy towards you," he observed, 
and the people breathed freely again. What is more, 
this prophecy has come true. Time and again the 
little nation has been on the brink of ruin, but 
Providence has kept it from destruction, for what 
purpose history has yet to record. 

These French missionaries from the first determined 
to make Africa their home, and to identify themselves 
altogether with the people whom they had come to uplift. 
They sought not only to win converts but to develop the 
national life as far as possible on Bible principles. Con- 
sciously or unconsciously they made the New Testament 
their guide in the one aim, the Old Testament in the 
other. Herein lay what some have thought to be their 
strength, and others their weakness. They only inter- 
fered with the customs of the natives when they were 



48 C01LLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



contrary to Christianity ; they did not seek to make 
Europeans of them. They also shared the people's 
troubles, so far that when a cattle-fine was imposed, the 
local missionary always gave his quota to the levy, though 
needless to say he had had no share either in the plunder 
or the provocation. They often had to act as interpreters 
between the chiefs and the Colonial authorities; and, 
perhaps, not the least of their services to South Africa 
has been the way in which they upheld the standard of 
intercourse in their despatches. They had not lost the 
grand manner which has made French the diplomatic 
language of Europe. 

It must never be forgotten that until 1868, Basutoland 
was as purely an independent kingdom as, let us say, 
Siam ; and that the position occupied by its missionaries 
was altogether unique. They themselves compared it to 
that of Samuel in the days of Saul. 

Above all they laboured to teach the Basutos that 
" righteousness exalteth a nation," and never lowered the 
standard a hair's-breadth for the sake of gaining influence. 
All went well as far as the spread of Christianity was 
concerned until, in 1851, the frontier disputes which had 
long been leading up to it culminated in an open rupture 
between the Colonial Government and the Basutos, and 
the former was defeated by the latter at the battle of 
Viervoets (June 30th). 

These troubles had begun with the Great Trek from 
Cape Colony in 1836. The emigrant-farmers had occu- 
pied the rich lands north and east of Cape Colony whose 
inhabitants the Zulus and Matabele had wiped out. The 
Matabele at once attacked the settlers round Winburg, 
in the Orange Free State, but they were defeated and 
driven far north beyond the Limpopo into what is now 
Bhodesia. On January 30, 1840 (Dingaan's Day), the 
Natal Boers won their final victory over the Zulus. 



1842] POLICY OF BUFFER STATES 49 

The dispersal of their two great enemies of course 
confirmed the security of the Basutos and the power of 
Moshesh. It is doubtful, however, if they appreciated 
this, for soon they began to feel what was to them far 
more obnoxious and alarming, namely, the pressure of 
the white man's vanguard on their frontier. In 1842 
Moshesh asked for a treaty of alliance (not as yet pro- 
tection) with the British Government. This was granted, 
the more readily as it enabled the Governor, Sir George 
Napier, to carry out a scheme originated by Dr. Philip 
of the L.M.S., which commended itself to the authori- 
ties both at home and at the Cape. This was to create a 
ring, or rather arch, of native territories on the north and 
east of Cape Colony under their own chiefs, guided by 
the counsels of resident missionaries. These were to act 
as buffer-states between the Cape colonists and the trek- 
Boers, who were to settle further north. The idea was to 
preserve their tribal unity and the use of their lands to 
those natives who were as yet unconquered. To this end 
the British Sovereignty was proclaimed in Natal (June 25, 
1842), and most of the Boers trekked into the Transvaal. 
Two other buffer-states were organised under the Griqua 
captains, Adam Kok and Waterboer, but these were 
artificial. The keystone of the arch was the kingdom of 
the Basutos, the only people who had any antecedent 
right to the land they occupied. By the treaty their chief, 
Moshesh, now obtained with the British, he was recog- 
nised as sovereign of the territories north of the Orange 
Kiver. No white man was to settle there without his 
permission, and the land was in no case to be alienated 
from the natives. 

The Free Staters, however, disregarded this entirely ; 
settled down, bought and sold lands without any reference 
to the chiefs. Their people, powerless to offer open 
resistance, retaliated by stealing horses and cattle from 

5 



50 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the trespassers in revenge for the kidnapping of their 
children, a practice which successive Presidents tried in 
vain to suppress. The infant State could not command 
a sufficient police force. Hence endless quarrels and 
conflicts arose. The more respectable settlers moved 
westwards to be out of harm's way. Thus the eastern 
border became the haunt of the lowest adventurers, and 
few were ever called to account. 

In 1847 Sir Harry Smith became Governor; a war- 
horse, " used to the desert, snuffing up the wind at his 
pleasure " ; a magnetic personality whom the natives 
feared and loved almost equally. But he had not always 
the calm judgment and insight needed for dealing with 
administrative problems. He acted impetuously on his 
intuitions, which were frequently right but sometimes 
totally wrong. Withal, he was a man of strong religious 
feeling, and the warm personal friend of the French 
missionaries, to whom he gave the golden advice, " Write 
to me as often as you like ; write often but write short, 
and never write to the newspapers." At the request of 
the emigrant farmers and of the Basuto chief, he came 
to Winburg and proclaimed the Sovereignty of Queen 
Victoria up to the 25th parallel, i.e., as far north as 
Lydenburg. This was on February 3, 1848. 

However, there was a party in the Free State which 
had not desired the Sovereignty, and all were annoyed by 
a clause stating that " All able-bodied white men were to 
be liable for service in aid of Her Majesty and her allies" 
i.e., the native tribes. The settlers did not want to be 
dragged into native quarrels. As a result, almost all 
united with the outlawed Captain Pretorius, and expelled 
the British Kesident. Sir H. Smith at once started with 
an armed force and reinstated him after the battle of 
Boomplatz (August 29, 1848). 

Throughout all these troubles Moshesh had proved 



1848] SIR HARRY SMITH 



51 



himself the firm friend of the British power ; he had kept 
all his promises, and had received the public thanks of 
the Governor, who had always been on friendly and even 
intimate terms with him, as witness the following 
letters : — 

" May 28, 1848. 

" My worthy and valued Friend, the great Chief Moshesh, — 
. . . Believe me, Chief, I often think of the pleasure I had in meeting 
you at Winburg. I at once discovered the dignity of your character 
and worthiness to be a chief. I have only one ardent wish to express 
to you — that you will provide for the future blessed state of your 
immortal soul, and that you will become a convert to the Christian 
faith and worship Almighty and Omnipotent God, through His Son, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Apply at once, therefore, to your excellent 
missionary, who will explain to you how all good men will meet 
hereafter in Heaven and enjoy eternal Bliss. 

" Your friend, 

" H. G. Smith." 

Moshesh was not behindhand in compliments. He 
wrote to Sir H. Smith after the battle of Boomplatz : — 

"Go, Great Warrior of your Nation, go under the shield of your 
mighty God Jehovah, by whose help you tell me you have been 
able to do such things in this country. 

" Go, Great Leader of the soldiers of the Lady your Queen, tell Her 
Gracious Majesty in my name that I love Her Government, I love 
Her warriors, whose deeds of valour have filled me with wonder." 

Soon after this exchange of courtesies, however, a 
sanguinary quarrel arose between the sons of Moshesh 
and one of his allies, Sikonyela, chief of the Batlokwas. 
Moshesh apologised for the conduct of his sons, and 
offered to pay any number of cattle demanded. Si- 
konyela, however, refused any compensation unless it 
included the favourite daughter of Moshesh, who was 
to be killed upon the very spot where the Basutos had 
(quite accidentally) killed his brother's wife as she was 



52 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



fleeing. Sir Harry Smith, being called upon to arbitrate, 
suddenly conceived the idea (as the Basutos had been the 
aggressors) that the power of Moshesh was becoming too 
great, and that the motto, Divide and Reign, must be 
applied to his case. He therefore sought to counter- 
balance this power by treating the chiefs of the Bara- 
longs, Batlokwas, and other vassal or refugee tribes 
(see p. 44) as independent rulers and the objects of his 
favour. "If Moshesh will not humble himself," he 
wrote, "he must be humbled." This was in 1849. 
Such treatment made the old king furious. He yielded. 
"What can a dog do that has a thong round its neck," 
he observed sullenly ; but from that hour he lost con- 
fidence in the good faith of Great Britain, and sought 
to protect himself by intriguing with the adjoining 
States — the Free State, the Transvaal, and the Zulus. 
His sons, deeming they had been betrayed, revenged 
themselves by harrying the neighbours, who till then 
had been their vassals, but whom Sir H. Smith had 
made independent. These, of course, appealed to the 
Governor for his promised protection. In reality he 
had altogether underestimated the power of Moshesh. 
The Commissioner advanced with a few field pieces, 
120 Cape Mounted Eifles, and a rabble of Baralongs 
and other tribesmen concerned in the dispute. The 
Basuto nation then numbered between seventy and 
eighty thousand. The whole fighting force turned out, 
met the invaders on June 30, 1851, at the Mountain of 
Viervoets, and drove them over the precipice, capturing 
also immense quantities of cattle. 

It was a fearful scene of carnage and defeat, and for 
the time being destroyed British prestige. But it had a 
far worse effect. The cause of Christianity, which had 
been rapidly advancing in Basutoland, received a check 
from which it has never since recovered. Till then the 



1852] DEFEAT OF EYRE'S HORSE 53 



chiefs had encouraged it, and many were professing 
Christians. After the orgies of victory most of them 
plunged back into heathenism, from which they have 
never since emerged. There are many more Christians 
in Basutoland to-day than there were then : they 
number one in eleven of the population, but not one 
of the leading chiefs is among them. 

The blow to the French missionaries was terrible. 
They had already been suffering acutely from the 
French Revolution of 1848, which had cut off all their 
supplies. Friends in the Cape, in Holland, India, and 
elsewhere had subscribed and sent them £2,000, and 
with the help of the chiefs they tided over this time. 

The British administration, too, found itself in a 
difficult position, surrounded by the famishing tribes it 
had promised, but failed, to protect. It was mid-winter, 
and their sufferings were awful. The victorious Basutos 
were quite out of hand, attacking Boers and natives, 
burning and plundering right and left. The first thing 
to be done was to recover authority, and a force was sent 
under Sir G. Cathcart. Eyre's dragoons were ambushed 
at the Berea Mountain, and forced back on their base 
at Platberg, though with a quantity of captured cattle. 
Their retreat was so masterly that Moshesh felt further 
resistance to such a disciplined force would be hopeless, 
and the same night (December 20, 1852), he wrote the 
historic letter which at once proved his wisdom and that 
of his advisers (the French missionaries), saved Great 
Britain from a costly war, and secured to the present 
hour the independence of his kingdom. 

" This day you have fought against my people and taken much cattle. 
As the object for which you have come is to have a compensation for 
Boers, I beg you will be satisfied with what you have taken. I entreat 
peace from you — you have chastised — let it be enough, I pray you. I 
will try all I can to keep my people in order for the future," 



54 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



This letter obtained the desired treaty of peace, but Sir 
Harry Smith was recalled. 

Finding it would be impossible to keep order in the 
Sovereignty — which embraced both Basutoland and the 
Orange Free State — without maintaining two thousand 
troops there, the home Government decided to withdraw 
altogether, as it did not wish to incur either responsibility 
or expense. A majority of the colonists agreed to this 
and on March 11, 1854, the flag of Great Britain was 
saluted, and then replaced by that of the Orange Free 
State. 

This did save expense for the moment, but responsi- 
bility could not be so easily shifted. Bacon has said : 
" It is the sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or desti- 
tute a plantation (i.e., Colony), once in forwardness, 
for besides the dishonour it is the guiltiness of blood of 
many corn/miserable people." In the Free State there 
were many who protested that Great Britain had no 
right to abandon an infant community to the mercy of 
the great heathen power which was at that moment in 
arms and flushed with a Pyrrhic victory. 

Certainly the withdrawal of the Sovereignty led to 
deplorable results. The Free Staters were so enormously 
outnumbered by the Basutos that they seem to have felt 
they must leave nothing undone to protect themselves. 
They were used to the military methods of the Matabele, 
and they did not, perhaps, realise that the Basutos had a 
different code. Thus it was a proverb among the latter 
that " the person of an ambassador is sacred, whatever 
his message." They also avoided injuring women and 
children and the helpless. They regarded war as the 
sport of men, its object being to capture the cattle of 
the enemy. The latter had the remedy in his own 
hands, namely, to call his people together and recapture 
them. As the herds were their banks, and were very rarely 



1854] MOSHESH FORSAKEN 55 



slaughtered, the loss of them caused no immediate suffer- 
ing. But to burn standing corn was to starve women 
and children and the helpless, and it was, as the chief 
Letsie wrote on another occasion, " an act which, when 
committed against a Mosuto, he never can forgive." 
Nevertheless, this was now done ; and moreover the 
white man when he recaptured his stolen cattle was 
certain, sooner or later, to get possession of the land 
on which he found them. By degrees the Basuto 
frontier was driven back to the Caledon River, but, 
though much which he claimed had already been added 
to the Free State, Moshesh in 1854 still held sway over 
what is now called the Conquered Territory, and the 
French Mission had flourishing stations on both sides of 
the river — eleven in all — with well-built houses, schools, 
and churches. 

The withdrawal of the Sovereignty placed Moshesh, as 
well as the Free State, in a doubtful position. Thence- 
forth he did not know, and nobody seemed to care, 
whether he was or was not under the Queen's protec- 
tion. " I have been like a man forgotten," he wrote, in 
asking for an assurance as to this. He made some wise 
laws and agreements, which he tried to carry out. One 
forbade the importation of European spirits under strin- 
gent penalties. Unfortunately, besides the missionaries, 
there were other white men in the country, many of 
them wastrels and criminals, who made gunpowder for 
him because he was not allowed to import arms or 
ammunition himself, and traded secretly in contraband 
guns, stolen horses, and brandy. These had the worst 
possible influence over the young chiefs, who were begin- 
ning to chafe against the moral restraints of the Chris- 
tianity in which they had been brought up — a rule of life 
which, as they thought, forbade them both the pleasures 
of peace and the spoils of war. Moshesh could no longer 



56 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



hold them in. The colonists displayed great self-restraint 
for a long time, but when they did begin reprisals it was 
in grim earnest. In 1858, when Francois Coillard 
arrived, war had just broken out, and the Free Staters 
had invaded Basutoland, as already related. 

The first place they came to was Beersheba, M. Bol- 
land's station, which they sacked at five minutes' notice. 
There had never been any cause of complaint against the 
inhabitants of Beersheba. It was destroyed as a strategic 
necessity, because they could not leave this rallying point 
in their rear ; but it caused cruel suffering to the people 
who, as refugees, had no chief and looked to M. Eolland 
for everything. He wrote, " I do not know where to find 
food for between 300 to 400 people, and we are without 
shelter for the winter." The stations of Hebron and 
Morija were also ravaged, and that of Thaba Bossio 
attacked.* After two months' fighting, both sides ap- 
pealed to Sir George Grey to mediate, and he succeeded 
in arranging a hollow peace, but war went on smoulder- 
ing and broke out again in 1865. 

From this time forward Moshesh was an uncertain 
quantity in South African affairs. He considered him- 
self an aggrieved individual. Yet it was certainly his 
desire to live at peace with Great Britain. " If, follow- 
ing the example of the kings of the Medes and Persians, 
I could at my death leave laws to my people, I should 
tell them never to make war upon the English," he wrote 
in his farewell letter to Sir George Grey. 

* The French missionaries were freely accused of taking part in 
the fighting, and this slander is even now circulated. The Civil 
Commissioner at the time investigated the matter, called witnesses, 
and as a result of their testimony the High Commissioner, Sir George 
Grey, wrote three separate letters, viz. : to the Colonial Office, to the 
French Consul, and to the President of the Orange Free State, in 
which he said he felt it was his duty to inform them that these 
charges had been utterly disproved. 



1858] DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 57 



Was Moshesh a traitor or an honest man? Perhaps 
the following anecdote, told in situ by M. Coillard, 
gauges his honesty and that of those about him 
better than pages of discussion. The place was the turn 
of a zig-zag path, the only one by which Thaba Bossio 
can be climbed. "Look down," he said. Below lay a 
flat grassy sward, half enclosed by two spurs of the 
mountain, and scattered over with stones and boulders 
from overhanging cliffs. " I will tell you what happened 
there once. In 1858 I was stationed here for a time. 
News was brought to me one day that a trader was 
taking away Moshesh' s cattle. I went to this trader 
and begged him to desist, saying, ' You know that the 
war is only just over, and that taking awa) !r a chiefs 
cattle is always understood as a challenge. You take a 
great responsibility on yourself in provoking conflict.' 
' I cannot help it,' said the trader ; ' Moshesh owes me 
hundreds of pounds, which he will not pay. I have 
heavy bills to meet in the Colony. They fall due next 
month, and I shall be ruined if he will not bring his 
cattle in. I have no alternative but to take them.' 

" I said, 'I will see Moshesh and try to persuade him 
to do you justice ! ' Towards evening I went up to 
his village and represented the case very urgently. 
' That smous ! [pedlar] ' said Moshesh. ' Just you come 
with me and see what he is doing, and what a fool I am 
going to make of him.' We came to the place where 
you and I are now standing and looked down. Large 
troops of cattle were coming in ; the trader had made 
kraals with the stones lying about, and as the herds 
passed by, his servants seized and enclosed them. The 
servants of Moshesh made no resistance whatever until 
the kraals were packed full. Of course I thought 
Moshesh had relented and was paying his debt. Sud- 
denly he gave a signal by throwing down his knobkerry. 



58 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



The herdsmen who were standing round gave each their 
own call : the cattle stampeded, kicking down or leaping 
over the walls, and their leaders went off with them. It 
was a frightful scene of confusion. The trader and his 
servants rushed about, beating and storming and cracking 
whips, all in vain. The poor man went off next day in 
despair, to meet his creditors. 

" I went to Moshesh and reproached him. 4 I was going 
to pay him, all in good time,' he said, ' but you white 
men are always in such a desperate hurry. I could not 
let him have those cattle : they are for my personal use, 
and all my reserve herds are in the mountains ' (Mo- 
shesh always pleaded inability to realise his securities). 
' Besides, he has foisted all sorts of things on me that I 
don't want ; hundreds of cases I have never even opened. 
Come and look at them.' 

" I went, and the first one we opened, immensely large, 
contained nothing but spectacle-frames without glasses ! 

44 4 There,' said Moshesh, 4 and yet you accuse me of 
defrauding him ! ' " 



CHAPTEE IV 



FIEST EXPERIENCES AT LERIBE 
1859-1861 

Leribe — First Experiences — Moshesh and Molapo — Lawless Fron- 
tier Life — Old Maria — An Apostate — The Unfrocked Priest — 
An Interrupted Funeral — Nathanael Makotoko — Heathen Feasts 
— Sorcery — Leaving Leribe. 

AFTEB the war the first Conference of Mission- 
aries met at Hermon, in November, 1858. All 
the workers felt themselves drawn closely together by 
their recent terrible experiences, and the suggestion that 
they should henceforth regard all their stations as one, 
was carried by acclamation. All agreed thenceforth to 
unite in prayer every Saturday evening at eight o'clock, 
however widely separated in body. This decision 
marked an epoch in the Mission. 

From Hermon, M. Coillard went for two months to 
the Chief's residence at Thaba Bossio. 

Journal F. C. :— 

" Thaba Bossio, December 27, 1858. 
''Yesterday Christmas was celebrated, instead of on 
Saturday. I passed a delightful Sunday here. Moshesh 
came down with some men. ... It was touching . . . 
to see how these people spent the day. Here a group of 

59 



60 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



heathen, well-anointed, ranged round a Christian woman 
decently clad, who was setting forth the Word of Jesus 
Christ to them. Elsewhere Moshesh, surrounded by the 
most aged women of the Church, talking to them about 
Heaven, and explaining to them with entrancing warmth 
and eloquence, ' In My Father's house are many 
mansions.' Then leaving the women, he went on to 
exhort a group of catechumens. All this went on 
outside, while school and church were full of such 
groups." 

The text here quoted was the very one which led to 
the conversion of Moshesh twelve years later. 

During this visit to Thaba Bossio, M. Coillard was 
presented to the chief Molapo, as his future missionary, 
and on February 12, 1859, he arrived at Leribe, the 
scene of his labours for the next twenty years. 

Molapo, once a baptized convert, was not the eldest 
son of Moshesh, but he was by far the most able, and 
to keep him from quarrelling with his eldest brother 
Letsie, his father had made him ruler of the Leribe 
district, a still savage region, in the extreme north of the 
country. Left to himself he gradually fell away from 
the Faith, and by the time a missionary could be placed 
near him, he was already a hopeless renegade and per- 
secutor. Indeed, so great was his hostility, that the 
Conference had almost decided to give up the station. 
To have a white man at his court, however, was a 
distinction as well as a convenience which he would not 
willingly forego ; and accordingly M. Coillard, at his 
own earnest request, was placed there. 

The first thing to do was to build, and he put up a 
small house in the chief's village. Thus he was living 
among the people. Furlough was then granted once in 
twenty years, and Africa therefore was now to be his 



1859] EXPERIENCES AT LERIBE 61 



home and country, He never saw his mother again. 
All Frenchmen love their mothers, but the tie between 
these two was peculiarly tender. All her love had centred 
itself upon him. Until her death, in 1875, he wrote long 
letters to her in large printed characters, so that her 
failing eyes could still read them, seeking in every way 
to associate her with his work, so that she might feel his 
absence as little as possible. The charm and graphic 
simplicity of his style has often been remarked, and it 
was in writing to her he learnt it. He was always just 
as much interested in the persons he wrote to as in the 
things he was writing about. 

F. C. to his Mother: — 

" Leribe, July 16, 1859. 
" Ma tendre et bien aimee Mere, — ... I came 
here alone by waggon towards the end of February. I 
was well received by the chief Molapo. . . . But un- 
fortunately I had shaved myself completely, which made 
me look very young. Molapo, who had seen me at 
Thaba Bossio with a beard, seemed struck by a change 
he could not understand, and at our first interview he 
asked me rather sarcastically, ' Moruti, how old might 
you be ?' ... In the evening, when the inquisitive 
people who had come to my waggon had left me, I 
walked towards a little well, where some women were 
drawing water. I greeted them, and they replied, 
' Good evening (Monare), Mynheer.' This is the title 
by which the Boers make the natives address them. 
'I am not Master,' I replied. 'Who are you, then?' 
cried some voice. ' The Moruti ' (missionary or teacher). 
' The Teacher ! ' cried another. ' And what should he 
teach ? He is a young man ; he has neither wife nor 
beard.' I went away in silence, determined to lose no 
time before letting my beard grow. 



62 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" At that time I was lodged in a tiny cottage, which the 
chief had placed at my disposal. ... It only protected 
me a very little from the wind and rain, and not at all 
from the dogs, who waged incessant war on me, stealing 
my meat and bread, making a noise all night long among 
pots. In the midst of all this, an Englishman appeared 
on the scene who was to help me build a little cottage of 
dried bricks (not burnt). Well, that was indeed a trying 
time for me. Every day I had no less than eight to ten 
Basutos, and often more, to feed, and nobody to share 
this terrible burden with me. Lydia [Molapo's chief 
wife] sent me a little girl about twelve years old, who 
in my absence got her feminine friends around her, 
smashed my cups, made havoc in my kitchen utensils, 
fled at the sight of me, and left me the saucepans to 
clean and the food to cook. If I told her to prepare rice 
for me, showing her the quantity of water necessary, she 
burnt it without water. If I ventured to remark on this, 
she drowned it. It was the same story with meat and 
everything else. A dismal tale altogether, and one 
renewed every day. 

" But Sundays were the worst. I would prepare 
myself to announce the Gospel in a strange tongue, my 
spirit overwhelmed with anxieties about the cooking and 
struggling incessantly against longings which Satan 
seemed to have inspired me with, on purpose to injure 
my work ! * How many times . . . when worn out 
with preaching, in the open air under a broiling sun, 
I have had to put the kettle on, in the same spot where I 
had been preaching and in the presence of many who had 
come to listen to me ! And if only I had always had 
something to cook ! ... In the midst of my difficult 

* Meaning pangs of hunger. M. Coillard always fasted in pre- 
paration for preaching. His convictions on the subject were 
invincible. 



1859] THE FIRST HOUSE 63 



circumstances, a poor old woman came to see me, a Chris- 
tian, who during the war had come to take refuge in these 
distant parts. 'I am old,' she said; 'you whose heart 
loves us, do take pity on me. I will serve you, with love 
and for the love of God, and of your mother, whom M. 
Arbousset has told us about. I ask nothing from you, 
because you are my father, but if you see old Maria 
shivering with cold perhaps you will give her a gown, 
although Meevrouw has not come among us yet ! ' I do 
my best to be gentle, respectful, kind, and helpful towards 
her, as if with you, my dear, loving mother." 

This was rather a pathetic picture of their mutual 
relationships. Old Maria soon became a terrible tyrant, 
and as she knew when she was well off, it proved 
impossible for years to get rid of her. 

Describing the little festival he made for the people in 
taking possession of his new dwelling, he wrote : — 

" October 7 or 8, 1859. 

"I called my house Ebenezer, recalling the circumstances 
in which Samuel raised his Ebenezer (1 Sam. vii. 12). 

"I wish you could have been with us, dear mother. 
But what am I saying? You were, for there are very 
few Basutos who have not already gone into ecstasies 
over your portrait. ' Show us our Mother,' they said. 
' Oh,' said one, ' it is a man ! Look at his handker- 
chief ! [in Basutoland at that time a masculine prero- 
gative]. What ! she has hands ! Look how she lets her 
hand fall. Eh, can't you see her ring on her finger! 
What a beautiful woman ! She is the Mother of 
Kindness. How we love her ! She is the mother of 
us all ! ' 

" This is how they would be going on all the time, if I 
would let them, in front of your picture." 



64 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Mme. Mabille, the widow of his best-loved fellow- 
student, colleague, and friend, writes : — 

" Few young missionaries have had a lonelier life or one 
of more entire self-sacrifice than his during the three 
years he passed there alone before Mme. Coillard came 
out to him, surrounded by an entirely heathen popula- 
tion, hearing nothing from morning to night and often 
all night through but the wild shouts, the din of their 
heathen dances, their drunken brawls. His food at that 
time consisted of native bread with thick milk (mafi) 
and pumpkin. I remember him spending days knee- 
deep in water, cutting the reeds with which to cover his 
first little cottage. At that time there was not a single 
Christian in the whole district with whom to hold 
Christian fellowship. 

" What a contrast when some years later I visited 
Leribe, . . . one of the most flourishing mission villages, 
with its little cottages nestled in their fruit and vegetable 
gardens. . . . For a time the work at Leribe promised to 
be the most successful and go-ahead one of our Mission. 
Since then a perfect cyclone of heathenism seems to have 
swept over the district of Leribe — wars, semi-civilisation, 
introduction of brandy [now forbidden], erroneous doc- 
trines — [but] although many of the promising buds have 
been destroyed, a rich harvest still remains." 

M. Coillard's own Journal shows how greatly he 
suffered in this isolation. He afterwards wrote : " Every- 
thing seemed to conspire for the ruin of my faith and the 
death of my soul." It was by his own wish that he had 
been appointed to a pioneer post. But he had not 
expected to be entirely alone there : he had counted on 
the most perfect of all companionships. He had learnt to 
know his future wife before leaving Paris, very slightly, 



1859] THE LEKHOTHLA 



65 



but enough to know that her heart was in the mission- 
field. He knew his own mind from their first meeting — so 
well that he feared to act on what might be only a human 
impulse. He wished to receive " a wife from the Lord." 

Convinced at last that she and no other was the help- 
meet meant for him, he wrote from Basutoland, and 
after six months of hopeful suspense, received her reply — 
a refusal, on the ground of insufficient acquaintance. 
Nevertheless, the Divine guidance was never shown more 
clearly even in their union than in its delay. He lacked 
self-confidence and he craved for sympathy ; but for the 
next two years he had to stand entirely alone, and find 
all his resources in God. This strengthened his character 
and also his faith in a way otherwise impossible. He 
threw himself into the life of the people around him ; 
sat chatting and listening in their leJchothla (court), and 
received them in his dwelling at all hours ; thus learning 
not only their language, but their customs and ways of 
thinking and feeling. 

Life in Basutoland was not so strenuous then as now. 
The population was smaller ; their flocks and herds and 
gardens amply met their few wants, and when these did 
not demand their attention, they went hunting. Nowa- 
days, they go to work for the white man's wages, and 
grow corn for the market. A much larger part of the 
ground is to-day under cultivation ; then it was covered 
with herds, which are now kept in the mountain districts. 
The tilling is largely done by the women; the men, if 
not otherwise engaged, are always to be found in the 
lekhothla, which is a feature of every village. It com- 
bines the purposes of a club, a tribunal, and a public- 
house. The refreshment consists of liteng, a very mild 
kind of beer, thick and sour, which may be compared to 
slightly fermented barley water or brewer's yeast. It is 
rather a food than a drink, and is offered to all comers. 

6 



66 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



The drunkenness then and now prevailing among the 
Basutos is produced not by this, but by the yoala, a 
highly intoxicating form of the same thing. This is 
specially prepared for their orgies, and church members 
are forbidden to make, sell, or taste it. 

The difficulties and hindrances to success arose rather 
from their habits and customs than from any hostility. 
The Basutos have no religion in the ordinary sense of the 
word, but their whole social system is rooted in three 
things incompatible with Christianity, viz. : witchcraft, 
the propitiation of evil spirits, and polygamy. Every 
crisis in life, infancy, adolescence, marriage, or death, is 
ushered in with ceremonies conducted by the witch- 
doctors to their own personal profit : drought, storm, wars, 
cattle-plague, house-building, all have their appropriate 
rites, in which the heathen who are not yet converted, 
but whose hearts are touched, are too often entangled 
and overcome. Chief among these are the rites of 
initiation. Both boys and girls between fourteen and 
sixteen are secluded for some months, and put through 
a course of discipline intended to train them in self- 
control and self-defence, and to teach them the ancient 
customs. In reality they learn everything that is evil, 
and nothing is left undone to stimulate every base and 
cruel impulse. These ceremonies are partly private 
and partly public. In public, they mean much feasting 
and slaying of fat oxen, much dancing by moonlight, and 
orgies of strong drink. These mekoa (customs or festivals) 
are so attractive and delightful to the African native that 
even those who are really Christians find them sometimes 
irresistible. The great aim of the missionary is to keep 
the young from ever going through them, for if they once 
become initiates, the hope of their eventually entering 
the Church is small. They have entered a fellowship of 
iniquity. 



1859] THE CATTLE-MARRIAGE 67 



Molapo at first confided his little son, Jonathan (the 
present chief), to his young missionary, who became 
exceedingly fond of him, and hoped to keep him from 
all this evil ; but after a time, fearing he would become a 
Christian, the father took him away. However, the boy 
was always in intimate relations with M. Coillard, and it 
was from him he received all his real education and 
training, fragmentary as it was. 

The cattle marriage of the Basutos is another great 
hindrance to Christianity, although in the absence of any 
other restraint its effect is not wholly bad, and would be 
still less so if monogamy only prevailed. It does form a 
binding contract, and invests marriage with some mutual 
obligations. The evils of the system do not lie on the 
surface, but it is altogether incompatible with the Chris- 
tian ideal of marriage. However, it is not really the 
selling of a woman for cattle, as people sometimes think. 
The woman does not thereby become her husband's slave ; 
her position is honourable and independent in proportion 
to the cattle given for her. It is rather a contract 
between two families (not between two individuals), and 
the cattle given by that of the bridegroom serve a three- 
fold purpose. First and principally, they transfer all 
rights in the children of the marriage from the bride's 
family to the bridegroom's ; secondly, in the case of 
divorce or desertion, they form a provision for the wife 
and her children ; thirdly, they are a pledge that the 
bridegroom's family will not profit by the alliance to 
injure that of the bride. It will be remembered that 
Laban demanded a pledge of this kind from Jacob at 
the stone of Mizpah. The bride's family by no means 
renounce all interest in her, as they would if she had 
been sold ; on the contrary, her eldest brother is her 
guardian and that of her children — a much-needed pro- 
tection where polygamy prevails, and fathers are often so 



68 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



unjust to their first families. If the husband, children, 
or the wife herself, should become Christian, the rights 
of her family over her take shape at once in a violent 
opposition, probably because they fear Christianity is 
some magic that will be used to work them ill, and this 
is often one of the greatest difficulties the missionary 
has to contend with. It met M. Coillard at the outset, as 
will be seen a few pages further on. 

Here is one instance of the way the cattle marriage 
works out. As already said, the principle of it is to 
transfer all rights in children to the man who gives 
cattle for the woman, whether or not the actual husband. 
So if a father gives cattle for his son's wife, the children 
belong to him, and in the same way if a chief presents a 
wife to a favourite servant, the children are his by adop- 
tion, because he has given the dowry for their mother. 
The chief Molapo had in his household (like other chiefs) 
girls whom he destined as wives for his servants. One of 
these becoming a Christian, obtained a legal and written 
release from him, in the presence of witnesses. She 
studied, became a teacher in Natal, married a native 
schoolmaster and lived happily for many years. On 
Molapo's death in 1880, his sons, meeting to realise his 
assets, bethought themselves of this woman, and sum- 
moned her husband to give her up, with her children and 
grandchildren. Upon his refusal, they appealed to the 
Government of Natal. At that time, the Natal Govern- 
ment maintained all native customs as law and refused 
to exempt Christian natives from their operation. So it 
upheld the claim of Molapo's sons and ordered the man 
to comply. Basutoland at that time was administered 
by the Cape Colony : to this Government the unfortunate 
family appealed ; again in vain. Just at that time the 
Disarmament War broke out (vide Chap. XVII.) and 
Molapo's sons Jonathan and Joel were unable, as they were 



1859] 



MOLAPO 



69 



fighting each other, to enforce their claim. After the war 
Basutoland became a Crown Colony : a distinction was 
drawn between natives under native law and those who 
claimed to conform to European law, and the poor woman 
and her family were saved from being divided up among 
the heathen. 

Molapo was the most formidable enemy of the Mission 
work. He seemed to have a double personality. In later 
life he developed epilepsy, which some thought was due 
to his excesses, but perhaps some latent form of it was 
partly the cause rather than the effect of his conduct. 
In the end he had paroxysms of insanity, during which 
he would hide in caverns and rage like a wild beast at all 
who came near him. 

On Sundays and other occasions he would exhort his 
people to be converted, all the while that he was carrying 
on a systematic persecution of all Christians. A young and 
inexperienced missionary stood a poor chance with him 
in controversy, for he had been brought up from earliest 
youth by two of the most expert and gifted missionaries 
Africa has ever possessed, and he knew every move of 
the game (for such he now regarded it). He knew the 
Bible history well. The New Testament had been 
published in Sesuto in 1853 ; he quoted it most skilfully 
for his own purposes, and could preach better than many 
a parson. He lacked the administrative ability of his 
father Moshesh, but he had the talent of the advocate, 
and also that gift for putting others in the wrong, which 
is common to degenerates. Francois Coillard possessed 
a keen intelligence, but his exceptional gifts lay less in 
argument than in his intuitions, and in his power of 
moving the conscience and the heart, and this was pre- 
cisely what was needed in intercourse with Molapo. It 
was David against Goliath, but a Goliath who had once 
been overthrown, who knew very well the potency of 



70 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the sling and stone, and had learnt to take cover with 
incredible adroitness. 

M. Coillard asked him one Sunday (July 30, 1859) : 
" Why is not man a brute ? What distinguishes him ? " 

" Well," replied Molapo, "I suppose that Solon, who 
taught Croesus so well, had seen that there was in man 
something more than in the brute ; something which feels 
joy and pain and dread ; something that understands, feels, 
thinks. Do you think oxen and horses do the same ? " 

The rest of this conversation, which is recorded at full 
length, gives a strange and awful picture of the apostate's 
mind. When reminded of his conversion : — 

"Yes," he said, "I was awakened, exercised beyond 
the power of words to express. I have experienced in 
my own heart, with unspeakable delight, the sweetness of 
Jesus. But to-day you see I have sunk into sin, and I 
am always sinking deeper and deeper." 

" Poor man ; and can you do nothing to escape ? " 

" Moruti, a man like you ought to know what the 
Apostle says : ' It is impossible to renew them again unto 
repentance.' So to-day, you see, if I listen to the Word of 
God, it is only with the ears of the head ; my heart, no, 
that hears them no more. I like the preaching (thuto) ; 
I like you. I shall do my best to build a school-house 
and a church. I do not like a place where the name of 
God is never heard. But that is all. It is all over with 
me. Ah, Monare, if you knew the power of that anguish 
which once laid hold of me, if only that could be renewed, 
do you see, it would cost me nothing either to send my 
wives away or to come and talk to you about my soul." 

" I tried to exhort him in God's name, but no mark of 
emotion or even of real seriousness betrayed itself in 
his own face. It is terrible to taste of the living, the 
true, and to return like the sow to her wallowing in 
the mire." 



1859] THE UNFROCKED PRIEST 71 



M. Coillard often had occasion to make short journeys 
to procure supplies, or to fetch his letters from Winburg ; 
on such occasions he would ask for hospitality from the 
farmers along the road, as was the universal custom. 
One day, travelling with a native who had attached 
himself to him, he knocked at the door of a house where, un- 
known to himself, he had forfeited a welcome. There was 
in South Africa at that time an unfrocked French priest, 
a notorious person whose name is well known. Having 
made Natal too hot to hold him, he was reduced to living 
by his wits at the expense of the newly settled districts, 
and had one day called at this very farm, where he was 
cordially received. It was towards the end of the 
Crimean War, and while waiting for supper, the host 
asked for the latest news. The ex-priest replied that 
Sebastopol had been captured. "How?" asked the 
farmer. At this moment the meal was announced. " It 
would take long to tell you," repliedhis guest, "but I could 
show you by arranging the furniture and the things on 
the supper-table, if you would not mind leaving me alone 
for a little while; then I can tell all your family about it." 

' 4 Of course, the room is at your service," replied the 
unsuspecting Boer, and left him alone. The Frenchman, 
who was hungry, cleared the dishes. At last the Boer 
returned with his family, and remarked that the arrange- 
ments had taken a long time. Suddenly he saw the food 
was all gone. " But what ! you were going to show us 
how Sebastopol was taken ! " 

"So I have." "But how?" 

" Just like this — by a ruse ! " The indignant Boer 
turned him out and vowed no Frenchman should 
darken his doors again. It was three or four years later 
when M. Coillard presented himself, but rural memories 
are long, so instead of inviting him on to the stoep the 
farmer left him outside sitting in the sun on the green 



72 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



box which was usually appropriated to natives, and after 
a very long time he returned, bringing him some food. 

" I was young and hot-blooded in those days (said M. 
Coillard), and I could not endure such a studied insult. 
I said : ' Mynheer, if I am not worthy to sit down at your 
table, I must decline your hospitality,' and we went away. 
We got no food and no chance of any for the rest of that 
day. About six months later I was working at my own 
house, when N. came to me in the greatest excitement. 
' Moruti, there is a Mynheer coming, and it is the very 
one who refused to receive you.' I looked and saw he 
was right. 'Well, N.,' I said, wishing to see how far 
he had grasped six months' teaching, ' how are we going 
to receive him ? ' He looked at me and said : ' The 
Moruti will invite him inside to rest ; and I shall look 
for the best food we have, what you do not have every 
day, and cook him a nice meal.' ' Bravo,' I replied, 
* that is just what we will do ! ' The Boer was greatly 
surprised and abashed to recognise his host; but we 
became great friends, and then he told me this story to 
explain his former rudeness." 

The native companion mentioned in this story was 
one of M. Coillard's two greatest friends and afterwards 
converts, Nkele and Makotoko. Makotoko, who had 
been brought up by M. Maitin, of Berea, already bore 
the name of Nathanael — a name well chosen, for he 
was indeed " without guile" — a rare characteristic in a 
heathen, though it was ten years before he became a 
Christian. Johanne Nkele died in 1875, but Makotoko 
is still alive, though in extreme old age. He was the 
nephew of Moshesh, and cousin of Molapo. The Eev. J. 
Widdicombe (of the Anglican Mission which, in 1876, 
was started in Basutoland) writes of the latter: "I am 



1859] NATHAN AEL MAKOTOKO 73 



proud to reckon him among my closest friends. Nathanael 
is not only a man of wise and ripe counsel in all the 
affairs of the nation, he is also the hero of a hundred 
fights. Best of all, he is a good and sincere Christian. 
. . . He is, too, a ' nature's gentleman,' as all who know 
him can testify." 

The story of Nathanael's spiritual growth, so slow and 
so interrupted, would surprise many who only knew him 
as an enlightened Christian. He was a typical soldier, 
brave as a lion and with a high sense of honour and of 
chivalry towards the weak, of which the latter were apt 
to take unfair advantage. He was excessively super- 
stitious, even for a Mosuto, and very susceptible to 
personal influence, good or bad. Being continually in 
M. Coillard's company, he several times imagined him- 
self a Christian, and would have made profession. M. 
Coillard, however, clearly saw that this was only the 
reflection of his own personality in Makotoko's mind, 
and refused to admit him to the Church until in 1866, 
when the French missionaries were all expelled, Mako- 
toko and many other Basutos were really converted, to 
the great joy of their pastors. 

As the force of a man's teaching and example can often 
be better appreciated in the lives he has moulded than 
even in his own, no excuse is needed for relating so 
much about Nathanael, who played a great part in 
M. Coillard's Basutoland life. 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

" October 3, 1859. 
" Makotoko is a young man of about thirty. He has 
lost his wife (on August 15, 1859). During the short 
illness of this poor young woman . . . one afternoon I 
directed my steps to his hut. I found there two indivi- 
duals with a black goat. Makotoko was not there ; I had 



74 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



him sent for. I found his wife rather better than usual, 
and we again knelt down together to pray to God. Then 
taking Makotoko apart, ' My friend,' I said, ' what is 
the meaning of that goat which I see at the door of your 
house ? Is it not a pheka (offering) ? ' 

" ' Yes, my father, and it burns my heart with black 
sadness. One day I sent a message to my mother-in- 
law. " Oh, my mother," I said, " your child is very ill ; 
if your eyes still thirst to see her in this world, hasten, 
for she is at the point of death." The answer of my 
parents-in-law was this goat. I cannot tell you the 
anger that filled my heart when I saw this heathen 
custom approaching my house. I said to my young 
brothers-in-law, "How can you bring me a goat to 
bewitch my lost wife, when I send and ask for some 
one to mingle their tears with mine, to help me in my 
trouble, were it only to care for the little baby who cries 
continually, and I cannot comfort it." ' . . . 

" Before nightfall I returned to the patient. Entering 
the court, I saw her seated on an ox-hide supported by 
two women; while her two brothers, having cut the 
goat's throat, were ' physicking ' (or bewitching) the 
dying woman with its still heaving entrails. ... I ex- 
pected every moment to see her pass away, and could 
scarcely contain my indignation. ' Can you not see that 
you are just finishing her off ? ' I said. ' You will see 
whether you cure her or not,' and I left. 

" Makotoko, who was not there, quickly followed me 
home. He asked me for a candle to sit up with his 
wife, and a blanket to wrap her in. We had just had 
evening worship ; I had had my supper, and was sitting 
down wrapped in pleasant thought . . . when suddenly 
resounded from every quarter those savage cries they 
call Mohhosi. 1 So she is gone,' I thought, and I could 
not help shedding a few tears. 



1859] JOB'S COMFORTERS 75 



" But I heard a knock at my door. It was Makotoko, 
accompanied by two men. His face expressed that 
profound grief which finds no vent in tears. I still see 
him crouching by the fire, silent and bowed down under 
the blow. After a few moments of painful silence, I 
said : ' Well, my friend, so she has left you.' 

" Then wiping his tears, he said : ' Yes, she has left me. 
I foresaw it ; when I left you with that candle and that 
blanket, I retired among the rocks to pray to God. 
"Yes," I said, in the bitterness of my heart, "I am all 
alone." I prayed much, and the more I prayed the more 
I felt calm and strength returning to my heart. I had 
scarcely come home, when I heard the women mourning. 
In the midst of this general grief, which swept the town 
like a torrent, I felt calm and strong. I went again into 
the rocks to cry to God, and when the chief came to 
console me I felt that other consolations abounded in 
my heart ! My father,' he added, ' you have been very 
kind to me in many ways since we have had you here. 
I beg you to have pity on me still in my tears. This 
corpse is yours, let it be buried by the law of the Gospel, 
and over the grave of her whom I mourn do you teach 
those who are still alive and mourning with me.' . . . 

" After my replying, some one present made a speech of 
condolence, which I wish I could reproduce in full : — 

" ' Yes, the missionaries say truly there is a God of 
comfort. But are they not true also, the words of 
wisdom we have received from our fathers ? There are 
gods and consolations with them ! Makotoko, son of 
Mochabane, my master, listen to the consolations with 
which Molapo, thy master, comforted thee when he said 
that Death is a horse whom no man can master, and a 
torrent which carries everything away. Even among 
oxen, is there one who lives for ever? Wonder not then 
if death has entered thy house ; it is the goal of all men. 



76 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" ' Listen, son of my master, to the consolations of the 
Moruti, thy father, whose heart answers so well to thine. 
Is it not thus we have seen the young calf seeking its 
mother ? It is known to all of us that the words brought 
by the Moruti are the milk that rejoices thy heart. But 
Makotoko — son of Mochabane, my master and my friend, 
let me add one word. Am I not older than thou, and 
shall I not find a wise word in my heart ? . . . 

" ' Yet art thou greater than I by these great thoughts 
that fill thy heart. It is but yesterday we said to each 
other, as thou wentest by, " What is he — a stripling, a 
nameless thing ? " To-day, who would lift up his voice 
to despise thee ? Sorrow has made thee a man : and thy 
deep wisdom shall now instruct us. 

" ' No, I will not weep for this woman, whom I did not 
know, and who was but a woman ! But I will weep 
because thy sorrow makes tears in my heart. Weep, oh 
my kind master ; death is a bitter fruit : weep, thou who 
art loved by all, but in thy sorrow incline thine ear, and 
despise not the consolations thy servants bring thee.' 

" To this discourse succeeded a long reply from the young 
widower. ' I am happy,' he said, ' that you should call 
me a man to-day; you have despised me long enough, 
though I had a beard and children. But be that as it 
may, these consolations that you give me, according to 
the custom of our people, I thank you for them, but are 
not consolations like a wind that blows and passes ? No, 
I expect no true comforts from men ; I only expect them 
from God, and those are true consolations, which mightily 
strengthen my heart.' 

"To this speech succeeded others with the obligatory 
responses. It seemed to me, I saw Job harassed by the 
consolations of his troublesome friends,* and I really 

* Cf. Job's friends, " Are the consolations of God small with thee ? " 
and Job's reply : " Miserable comforters are ye all." 



1859] AN INTERRUPTED BURIAL 77 



pitied the poor young man whose grief was so evident. 
The night was far advanced, and I cut short these long 
condolences by reading some verses of the Word of Life 
and by a prayer. 

" The next morning the chief informed me officially that 
the wife of one of his head men was dead, ' and,' said 
he, ' this corpse is yours ; do with it as your wisdom 
counsels you.' 

" I sent for Molapo ; he came immediately, accompanied 
by the principal men of the village. We went together 
to choose the spot in the City of the Dead ; we placed it 
in a beautiful hollow of the hill, ordered the diggers, and 
separated, the chiefs to dress, the missionary to meditate 
[on his sermon.] 

I was praying most earnestly that hearts might be 
touched ! But suddenly, without knocking, a man rushed 
into my room, his face flaming with anger. ' What right 
have you to seize this corpse ? ' he shouted in trembling 
tones. 1 Where is it ? Where is the father that begot 
it and the mother who gave it birth? When did you 
inform them ? When did you call them ? My father 
has sent me with the beast of sacrifice ; he said nothing 
to me about the burial of his daughter. It is his daughter 
and her corpse is his ; it is ours, it is mine ! You may 
talk, Moruti ; and Molapo, our chief, can give orders. 
What is that to me ? I am going to seize this body, and 
bury it as my heart bids me and as our fathers have 
taught us. And how should I present myself before my 
father, and endure the wrath of his eyes, if I abandon the 
body of his child to strangers ! He will seize, I know he 
will seize his spear, and will pierce me, and stretch dead 
at his feet the son who does not respect his father's 
mouth. We are men of the world : we scoff at the 
preaching ; we despise, we hate these meaningless words. 
I have said it, and I repeat it. This corpse is not yours 



78 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



but mine, and I am going this very instant to bury it as 
I have resolved in my heart, and as I have been taught by 
those who gave me life ! ' 

" Thereupon he rose hastily, and without waiting for 
any reply, rushed off, scooped a hole in the kraal (cattle 
enclosure), hacked the stiffened knees and hip-joints of the 
deceased so as to place her in the grave in a sitting 
posture, according to their custom, and at night went 
and completed his work of darkness alone. 

" In vain I tried to edge a word into this torrent of 
language. ' Are we body-snatchers ? ' I asked. ' Was 
it I who asked for this body you dispute with me ? Is it 
not your brother-in-law, the son of Mochabane, and your 
chief Molapo who have placed it at my feet ? Do you 
forget, my friend, that my name is Moruti, that is he who 
teaches; and another of my names, is it not Motselisi, 
he who comforts ? If then I wished, or rather consented, 
to bury this corpse, it was that I might instruct those 
who live and comfort those who mourn.' 

" But as I said, it was in vain. 

" This death, and especially the scene which ensued, 
produced a great sensation in the town, some approving 
the brother, others condemning him. It was one Friday. 
On the Sunday we had a large congregation ; all felt under 
a solemn impression. I took for text, 1 It is appointed 
unto men once to die, and after that the judgment ! ' I 
read and re-read it several times, and the people wept. 

" The next day I went away. My absence proved longer 
than I expected. After my return, the next day Makotoko 
came and told me he wished to serve the Lord, whatever 
it might cost, and turn his back on the world which now 
was only a desert for him. . . . 

" Yesterday he came to see me again, telling me he had 
not slept ; that one word of my preaching on Sunday had 
touched his heart (on the Prodigal Son). 



1859] REVIVAL OF HEATHENISM 79 



" I said that sinners must look at their sins with one eye 
and keep the other on the mercy of God. ' If you only 
look at your sins you will die of despair ; if you only look 
at the mercy of God, you will deceive yourself and perish.' 

" ' I was thinking of that. I was sad, when this word 
came to my mind, ' 'Behold what manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the 
sons of God." I would have liked to read this word but I 
had no light.' 

" Poor boy ! I reproach myself bitterly with loving him 
too much and conversing too much with him. May God 
forgive me and teach me wisdom. 

" October 9, 1859. 
" Decidedly, I am growing too fond of these Basutos. 
I cannot live without loving them ; and I am storing up 
disappointments for myself, because my love is perhaps 
different from what it ought to be. My God, Jesus, give 
me to love Thyself above all." 

M. Coillard often used to speak of the great impression 
the verse above quoted makes upon the Africans who 
understand adoption so much better than we can do, since 
it does not enter into our social life in the same way as 
into theirs. 

He had arrived in Basutoland at a very unfortunate 
moment. Ever since the war of 1858 the ancient heathen 
customs, which were fast becoming obsolete, had been re- 
vived, as a means of strengthening national feeling. This 
was by the advice of the witch-doctors, with whom the 
chief surrounded himself. At first the sons of Moshesh, 
brought up as Christians, shrank from them in disgust. 
" It was like digging up a corpse," said some. But the 
diversions, the dancing, drinking, and feasting that 
accompanied this exhumation, soon won them over, and 
Molapo especially encouraged them. The impressions 



80 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



created in the neighbourhood by the death and burial of 
Nathanael's wife were soon shaken off by all but himself, 
and the difficulties of the young missionary seemed to 
multiply. He did not fear to protest. For weeks 
beforehand, while the preparations were going on for 
the ceremonies of initiation, he not only preached against 
them in the presence of the chief himself, but exhorted 
those who knew better to resist. In vain. The heathen 
feasts took place. 

" To-day I explained the choice of Moses, insisting on 
the words, Not fearing the wrath of the King. . . . My 
sermon greatly irritated the blacksliders. 'You see,' 
said a heathen to one of them in the lekhothla, ' we have 
two missionaries — Monare and you. Our hearts would 
like to believe what the servant of God says, but you are 
our chiefs . . . and you give us feasts ' (i.e., heathen 
festivals)." 

Semi-anarchy prevailed both within and without 
Molapo's province. M. Coillard's journal gives a daily 
picture of the wild frontier life around him, the lawless- 
ness of which led up to the wars of 1865-8. It brings 
out, too, the singular fact that Molapo in his public 
character was just and upright ; it was only in private 
life that he showed himself as he did, treacherous and 
cruel. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" March 8, 1860. 
" Began to make bricks for the church with two work- 
men. Found Molapo, hands and feet in mud, like me, 
working at plastering the wall before his lekhothla. 
Many men were squatting there looking on respectfully 
at their chief working. Molapo sat on the wall to • feed 
his children ' [i.e., to judge his people] .... 



1860] LAWLESS OUTRAGES 81 



" I acquainted Molapo with the fact that the English of 
Winburg stole the two cannon from the Fort, the Dutch 
inhabitants of this village pursued them and caught 
them at Moroki's, at the frontier of Basutoland, where 
apparently these English intended to take this booty and 
exchange it with Moshesh for a couple of hundred head 
of cattle. . . . [These were some of the English outlaws 
already mentioned.] 

" Letsuele, chief of a little village . . . came to get a 
pair of stockings I had promised him. I made a glass 
of soda-water before him. ' Oueche ! Oueche ! Oueche ! ' 
I let him taste it, which redoubled his astonishment. 
' Fire that freezes,' he said. 'I never heard of such a 
thing ! ' 

" These days really, Boers upon Boers arrive here about 
thefts. This puts Molapo beside himself, for he is up- 
right, and does all he can to repress stealing and do 
justice. 

" The other day it was Linguane, one of Molapo's prin- 
cipal men, who lives on the frontier. This wretched 
man had earned three oxen from a Boer, which he sold 
back to him for £9, but in the night he stole two of 
them. Some time after, hearing that the thing was 
getting noised abroad, he sent them back to the owner 
. . . saying that Molapo wanted to buy cattle. The 
astonished Boer came straight to the chief, who, suspect- 
ing Linguane, sent him to him. The Boer, never having 
seen Linguane's face, could do nothing. But the Basuto, 
frightened at the turn affairs were taking, had no sooner 
taken leave of the Boer than he fled to the fields, sent for 
his saddle, his horses, and his cloak, and disappeared. . . . 

" One day Molapo was so sad, so cast down, that he told 
me he no longer cared about his tribe, for these chiefs 
themselves were so addicted to stealing, whereas he 
reproved them as much as he could, but in vain. 

7 



82 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" Nothing is talked of. but war ; assegais and shields are 
being got ready — while I go on making bricks ! 

" The trader who came to see Hopkins informed me that 
a young Englishman, a deserter from Morija, had been 
killed, and apparently by X., another Englishman, 
who built my house for me. I am astonished, for the 
character of my builder was not the least that of a 
murderer. The English in Basutoland, however, have 
all met at Thaba Bossio to judge the question, and have 
found such evident proofs against poor X. that they 
have asked Moshesh to have him taken to the Colony to 
be judged. 

" March 11th. 

" During the night the pigs destroyed all the bricks we 
made yesterday. . . . 

" Molapo came to dinner with me. . . . We talked of 
everything — of Sir G. Grey, who is expected, and of 
Pretorius, and especially of the Basutos, who nowadays 
steal more than ever. I translated to him a letter from 
J. Boshof, who complains bitterly that . . . four or five 
of his oxen have disappeared. . . . Molapo seems in- 
clined to start off to-morrow himself in pursuit of the 
robbers, and thus make a public and official demonstra- 
tion. I strongly urged him to do this, after thinking it 
over, and he is to start to-morrow morning. Evidently 
he is feeling these thefts very keenly. 

"March 21st. 
" Yesterday I paid a visit to Molapo. He told me how 
his journey had turned out. The stolen oxen were found 
in a little village belonging to Lesaoana, and the robbers 
said that it was their chief who had sent them, and that 
he had already received two of the oxen. They were 
much astonished that Molapo claimed them. ' They are 



1860] LESAOANA'S THEFTS 83 



our enemies' cattle ! ' they said. Lesaoana sent all his 
people to prevent Molapo taking the oxen. Molapo was 
not present. They had nearly come to blows, when he 
sent to say to his people they were not to fight. ' It is 
Lesaoana's town,' he said, 'he will do as he pleases. 
We have found the thieves, and the cattle were what we 
wanted.' He added that Lesaoana must pay a fine of 
one ox. Lesaoana consented. Yesterday the four oxen 
arrived. 

" March 23, 1860. 
" Everything with the Basutos is very simple. An ox- 
skin covers them by day and wraps them up by night ; 
some reeds and a little grass suffice to make them a 
shelter against the changes of weather. I remember 
how many remarks were made about my little cottage. 
. . . Some one observed that ' the white men built as 
if they were never going to die.' How very just and 
sensible — I might even say Christian — was this remark ! 
Certainly the Basuto style of building is very well 
designed to remind us that we are only travellers, for 
when they move they take their houses with them, and 
if a woman dies they leave her house to fall to ruins. 

" Sunday morning, March 26, 1860. 
"... Preached on Luke xiii. I told the fable of the 
Grasshopper, the Ant, and the Bee, imitated from La 
Fontaine's La Gigale et la Fourmi. It seems to have 
made some impression, for after the service they 
collected in groups and repeated it." 

This was the first of a charming series of fables which 
he wrote for the people, and which are still very popular 
among them. 

The proof that his influence was telling in their midst 



84 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



began to be shown in the way he was called in to preside 
over domestic events, which otherwise would have been 
celebrated with heathen rites. In July, 1860, a favourite 
official of Molapo's died, named Chapi. Though not a 
professed Christian, he was very devoted to the thuto 
(teaching). Molapo and his own father requested that he 
should be buried as a Christian. This time the ceremony 
was carried out without interruption, and marked another 
epoch in the history of Leribe — the first public triumph 
of the Gospel. Still more important for the future was 
the way in which they began to place their children 
under his wing. 

Jouknal F. C. : — 

" Petle told me that his wife had just had a little 
daughter, and did me the honour of asking me to choose 
a name for her. Wishing to remind the mother of this 
year of her conversion, I gave her the name of Maleseli 
(Mother of Light), and they were pleased with the name. 

" Sunday evening, May 21th. 
"Long talk with Nathanael about his soul. N. said, 
* Your words about Saul last week pierced my 
heart.' . . . 

" I can only rejoice with trembling. I believe Makotoko 
to be sincere, but weak, weak, weak I One evening he 
was weeping at my feet over his sins, and the very next 
day, covered with all the ornaments of paganism, he 
stifled his conscience in the midst of its festivities. 

"June 22, 3860. 
" In Guer's Church History ... I have just been 
reading about the torture of John Huss at Prague. I am 
confounded in the presence of such courage. Where 
should I be in such circumstances? 



1860] BASUTO WITCHCRAFT 85 



" June 25th. 

" My poor old Maria is in despair. She was making 
candles : she filled the moulds, and turned her back a 
moment while they were cooliDg. In came a dog — and 
farewell to moulds and candles ! The dogs wage con- 
tinual war upon me. I cannot keep a single egg. 

"July 5, 1860. 
" So I have received Miss M.'s reply. I cannot believe 
in my own happiness. . . . 

" July 28th. 

" Working hard at my bookshelves and reading with 
interest and delight the History of England. 

" August 4:th. 

"Molapo, now he knows I am going to be married, 
considers me a man, acquaints me with his affairs, and 
demands my advice. 

" He officially informed me about Sepota's affair. This 
was a man of Sikonyela's, whom Moshesh received very 
kindly and considered as one of his own subjects. 
But when the last war broke out, this wretch first 
went over to the Boers, then pillaged their abandoned 
farms, and seized numerous herds which he brought 
into Basutoland. Then visiting his brother, who had 
remained faithful to Moshesh, and who made a feast 
for him, he killed this brother in the middle of the 
feast, and seized all his cattle. Moshesh, very angry, 
despatched Molapo, who himself sent his general to 
seize all the cattle of the traitor. All this happened 
on the day and the morrow of Chapi's burial. 

"WlTCHCKAFT. 

" Thursday, August 24, 1860. 
" . . . On Monday evening at Lebotoane, sitting round 



86 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the fire, I got Makotoko to explain many things to 
me ; he has a quite exceptional talent as raconteur. . . . 

"When lightning falls in a village [he said], whether 
or not it strikes any living person, every one must 
he purified, for God has visited them. All the women 
of the village take the hearthstones and carry them 
out of the village, and find new ones. All the milk- 
preparations are taken from the pots and leather 
bottles. It is all boiled up in a single pot if possible 
. . . and this milk-soup is eaten by the men. Then 
men and women all go in procession to the river to 
wash. On their return, the medicine-men sprinkle 
them with water of purification, made from I know 
not what herbs; oxen, kraals, all are sprinkled with 
the same water. But that is not all. The people 
meet together in the village square, men, women, and 
children. Then the medicine-men disperse the crowd 
in every direction, holding flaming torches in their 
hands, made of grass soaked in water and afterwards 
in fat, sputtering in the most terrible way and 
throwing out right and left sparks of burning grease, 
cast by the water in the torch. It seems to be a 
formidable ceremony, because of the pain caused by 
the grease falling and burning you ; and the whole 
force of superstition is required to make men and 
women undergo it. The cattle, small and great, undergo 
the same purification, which makes them bellow horribly ; 
then the milk-soup is eaten, the pots and leather bottles 
are washed, and all is over. 

" The Basutos have several methods of guarding them- 
selves from sorcery. When a man has built a house, 
he calls a Ngaka (doctor). This man prepares medicines, 
makes decoctions and libations, and plants a sharp- 
pointed stone, or a pot upside down, in the courtyard, 
as a symbol of the strength of this house which no 



1860] 



HERMON 



87 



sorcerer can carry off, so that witchcraft can have no 
power over him who inhabits it, but will return upon the 
head of its author." . . . 

In consequence of the discouragements arising from 
Molapo's enmity, the Conference of Missionaries in 1860 
began to think they ought to remove M. Coillard from 
his very difficult post and give up the Station, placing 
him as colleague with another missionary. This he did 
not wish at all. He always wanted to have the hardest 
post and to hold it alone. He wrote to the Paris Com- 
mittee (in 1860) :— 

" I ask you what are two years when three-quarters of 
the time one has to be builder, carpenter, anything but 
missionary ? People talk of difficulties ! Who is without 
them ? . . . Whatever these difficulties may be, gentle- 
men, I have never allowed myself to think that we 
ought to run away from them, but to fight them with 
courage, faith, and perseverance, and — to conquer them 
some day." 

And in his diary he wrote : — 

" Do they think I am made of wood, with a heart of 
stone ? Do they not know that it is just because I have 
suffered at Leribe that my heart is so much the more 
attached to it ? " 

However, he agreed to the suggestions of the Confer- 
ence so far as to replace a colleague at Hermon for a few 
months, till it should be time to start for the Cape 
to meet his bride. His work had not been entirely 
unfruitful ; he left behind him a small Church composed 
partly of new converts, partly of Christians from other 
parts, who had come to live there. 



88 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



F. C. TO HIS Mothee : — 

" August 23, 1860. 

"... I left Leribe last Monday. I had to endure 
the most harrowing scenes [of farewell] .... On 
Sunday I administered the Lord's Supper once more 
in the midst of tears and sobs. . . . ' My father,' said 
one, ' we are about to die of hunger. It is all our 
own fault, for we had bread, and we played with it 
instead of eating it.' 

" At the lekhothla the chief and his principal counsel- 
lors spoke in the most touching manner. 'As forme,' 
said [one] , ' I declare that the missionaries are cowards 
— yes, cowards. Don't you see that they run away from 
the fight ? Where can evil be greater ? . . . Your duty 
was to stay here, and make a nation of this nation ; out 
of these men to make men. 1 

" The joy the news [of my forthcoming marriage] 
created among all the men was so acute that for the 
moment they seemed to forget my departure. ' To-day, 
you are a man ; return quickly and bring us our Mother, 
and the Mother of our wives ! ' " 

Leribe was a lovely spot, but Hermon to which he 
now removed was dreary enough, and once there he 
found it difficult to get away, for he says, "My two 
horses, tired of studying geology by day and astronomy 
by night in the deserts of Hermon, took the key of the 
fields and made off to the pastures of Leribe ! " It was 
long before they were restored to him, and meanwhile he 
had to visit his vast parish on foot throughout the scorch- 
ing summer. His congregation there was composed not 
of heathen but of professing Christians, most of them, 
unfortunately, very far below the level of their profession. 
As his exhortations began to take effect, some of them 
became very contrite. 



1860] A CHURCH RESTORED 89 



" Monday, November 12, 1860. 
" Since I came out of church this morning, I have been 
listening to the interminable confessions of my poor 
parishioners. It is seven o'clock. One thought strikes 
me. If these confessions revolt me, because they are 
nothing but vain repetitions, what must it be with the 
miserable prayers I send up to the Lord ! " 

It is hardly necessary, perhaps, to say that auricular 
confession is not practised in the French Protestant 
Mission. But the Basutos were ready to pour out 
their souls on the least encouragement, or even without 
it. It sounded so much, and alas ! it often meant so 
little. 

However, he had at least the satisfaction of leaving 
behind him at Hermon a church restored both spiritually 
and materially. The people, to show their repentance, 
almost rebuilt it. 



CHAPTEE V 



CHRISTINA MACKINTOSH 

Childhood in Edinburgh — Life in Paris — Betrothal — Marriage in 

Cape Town. 

THE marriage of Francois Coillard was not a mere 
incident in his career. If it be true that he would 
have been what he was in any circumstances, it is equally 
certain that but for his wife he could not have done what 
he did. She was the complement of himself, " a help suited 
to him." Hers was a character formed to command, 
yielding boundless devotion to an allegiance once accepted, 
but to no other influence or authority whatever. Help- 
lessness and suffering of any kind drew out all her 
sympathy : on those who needed it she lavished tender- 
ness and sympathy ; those who did not need it sometimes 
found the force of her energy rather overwhelming. She 
came on both sides of pure Highland stock, deriving 
a strong mystical strain from her mother's family, some 
members of which were believed to possess the gift of 
second sight ; and from her father's, energy, daring, and 
quick- wittedness. It was a race which had fought in 
forlorn hopes from Harlaw and Bannockburn to Culloden, 
and which in her childhood still cherished something of 
the romantic loyalty of the past in the songs which were 

their household words, such as — 

o 



1829-39] CHILDHOOD 



91 



Geordie sits in Charlie's chair, 
Bonnie laddie ! Hieland laddie I 

for the Jacobite tradition lingered as a sentiment long 
after it had ceased as a conviction. Her father, who was 
nearly thirty years older than his wife, was a Baptist 
minister connected with the work of the Haldane Brothers 
(his life-long friends), first in Grantown-on-Spey, Inver- 
ness-shire, and afterwards in Dundee and Greenock. 

He was a devoted and gifted man, handsome, and 
remarkably dignified both in character and manners; a 
fine preacher, and in private life brimful of Highland 
anecdotes and traditions. For some time he was at the 
head of a seminary for evangelists, one of the several 
founded by the Haldane Brothers, but the first of its 
kind for training Gaelic-speaking preachers. Later on, 
he became travelling secretary for the Baptist Mission 
to the Highlands and Islands. As this took him much 
away from home, the family removed to Edinburgh, 
partly to be near Mrs. Mackintosh's elder brother, Dr. 
John Stewart, who was at that time a well-known 
physician there, and partly to be under the preaching 
of the Kev. James Haldane, at the Tabernacle Church. 

Christina was born at Greenock on a tempestuous 
night (November 28, 1829). As a child, she showed 
herself affectionate but passionate, and her father used 
to say, " Christina was born in a storm and will live 
in a storm." Her brothers and sisters called her the 
Heroine, so early did she manifest not only the longing 
but the power to do something and be something. She 
was not disposed to take anything on trust, but wanted 
to " prove all things" for herself. Brought up in the 
strictest Sabbath observance, as a child she returned 
from church one Sunday, locked herself in her room, 
and deliberately sat down to sew, to see what would 
really happen, fully expecting, as she afterwards con- 



m COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



fessed, to see flames burst from the floor and devour her ! 
After this experiment she returned to the paths of 
obedience, concluding there might be better reasons 
for honouring the Lord's Day than the fear of condign 
wrath. Her intellectual ambitions were roused by her 
parents' removal to Edinburgh (where the education of 
girls was at least fifty years ahead of its progress in 
England). She attended with her sisters the famous 
Charlotte Square Institute, and afterwards a private one, 
where she greatly distinguished herself, especially in 
music and literary subjects, studying also Latin and 
mathematics. Like all Scotch girls at that time, she 
also received a thorough domestic training at home, but 
for this she had a pronounced dislike. One day, as she 
and her younger sister sat together with a pile of sewing 
between them, she threw her work down, saying, "I think 
I've done this long enough," and walked out. Few 
people ever disputed her actions, and she never told her 
reason for casting aside needlework, namely, that she 
might have time for the poor. This girl of fourteen or 
fifteen, as she then was, seized every moment in the 
intervals of school to visit the wynds and slums of 
Edinburgh, a most dangerous thing to do at that time, 
but danger was the last thing she ever thought of. One 
cold Sunday, after church, she desired the sister above- 
mentioned to come with her, led her into a horrible close 
behind the Canongate, up a broken stair, and left her on 
a dark landing near the roof, while she entered an attic. 
After what seemed an endless absence, she opened the 
door (through which could be seen a bare room and a 
ragged family), and commanded the frightened younger 
one to take off a warm garment (which, moreover, 
happened to be quite new), adding, "I've given them 
mine already." Here in one sentence was the message 
of her whole life. The girls walked shivering home. 



1842] INFLUENCE OF DR. MOFFAT 93 



Their parents did not rebuke them. It was quite the 
spirit in which they desired to bring their children up. 

The atmosphere of the house was somewhat austere 
and the discipline strict. Even their recreations were 
serious. "I entertain the little boys," wrote the eldest 
brother, Daniel, to his sister Kate, " with the poems of 
Milton and the game of chess "; and the little boys (all 
under eight years old) enjoyed them. To the death of 
this adored brother and to the weeks of gloom that 
followed, nearly all the members of the family traced 
their first deep impressions. Christina, then seventeen, 
was of an age when such impressions rarely fade. Like 
her future husband, she had always been religiously 
inclined, and like him, too, it was the work of Kobert 
Moffat that had first attracted her to Missions. "When 
she was thirteen years old he visited Scotland with Sarah 
Eobey, a little black girl he had rescued from being 
buried alive, and she heard him speak. She at once per- 
suaded her sister to join her in subscribing to a children's 
missionary magazine, and from that time determined to 
be a missionary herself. As is generally the case, interest 
in the heathen quickened her sense of needs nearer home. 
At the very time Francois Coillard was listening to John 
Bost pleading for his Incurables, she was collecting 
money in Edinburgh for the Asiles de la Force which 
he founded. Her brother's death led her to realise that 
in spite of all these exalted purposes she was still un- 
reconciled to God. Months of inward conflict passed, 
unknown to any one around her. At last, through some 
words from her father's friend, Mr. Hugh Kose (well 
remembered by many), she found peace with God ; but 
she was far too reserved to speak of it until a year or two 
later her sister wrote to tell her of a similar experience. 
Then she replied, "It brought all back to me the un- 
speakable joy I felt the moment I could say ' Lord, 



94 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



believe,' and the happiness which replaced in my heart 
all the misery and darkness of doubt to which I had 
so long been a prey." 

Now she felt still more certain she was called to Africa. 
For this she renounced, not once or twice, the bright 
prospects opened to her; but seeing no present way to 
it, she threw herself into her work of teaching, " fighting 
with demons in the shape of boys," as she wrote to her 
sister. However, they soon ceased to be such under her 
care ; she had in those days a singular power of attaching 
young people to herself. 

As all her early correspondence has been lost or 
destroyed, it is impossible to trace in her the develop- 
ment of purpose. Only one fragment of a girlish letter 
has accidentally survived : it shows the strong common- 
sense underlying her active and ardent temperament. 

" Bella M. thinks nothing of sending me nineteen pages 
at a time ; her effusions would amuse you. She and I 
correspond in the language of Alexandrian philosophers ; 
if you have yet read Hypatia you will know what that 
means : oh ! is not that Eaphael Aben Ezra an absurdity ! 

"Is there any romantic nonsense in J.'s head about 
going as a nurse to the Crimea ? Some of my acquaint- 
ance are crazed about it, but I don't think they quite 
realise all the attendant discomforts." 

These were the days of La Belle Alliance. English 
and French were fighting side by side in the Crimea, 
English and Scotch governesses were flocking to Paris. 
There was, however, no residential home for them ; and 
in 1855 some English Christians, seeing the need, started 
one, which was the forerunner of Miss Ada Leigh's 
famous institution. They invited Kate Mackintosh, the 
eldest of the family, to conduct it. She was a most 



1857] MME. ANDRE- WALTHER 95 



earnest worker, and in this way she speedily became 
known in Protestant French circles, at that time largely 
dominated by Madame Andre-Walther, who became 
almost a mother to her. This lady did more, perhaps, 
than any other person to draw together the Evangelicals 
of France, at that time split into warring sects ; and to 
raise the standard of spiritual life among them. Every 
week she opened her salon to all her friends : clergy and 
professors, students and deaconesses, great ladies, officers, 
and philanthropic peers, all had the same welcome ; all 
joined in family worship, and helped forward the good 
works in which she sought to interest them ; not such a 
matter of course then as now. Other friends, like- 
minded, had other evenings. It was in this way that 
Kate Mackintosh came to know Francois Coillard. In 
1857, after her father's death, Christina joined her sister, 
and speedily became a favourite in the same circles. She 
had no beauty beyond the freshness of her youth and her 
sparkling eyes, but she had a great personal charm, and 
in this genial Christian atmosphere her social nature 
expanded like a flower; she was happy and beloved. 
Her French friends appreciated her self-possession and 
powers of conversation. From her childhood, indeed, 
to the end of her life, she was always mistress of the 
situation, but those who only knew her in later years, 
with shattered health and nerves, could never realise 
the brilliance of her youth. The following letter in the 
quaint French of an old Court lady was treasured among 
her husband's papers : — 

" I was once at Enghien at the house of the Hon. Miss 
Monck. There came a young lady named Christina. 
She was pretty but somewhat indifferent to dress ; she 
was graceful and showed a rosy face under a large straw 
hat. Later on, having to convey Miss Troubridge's com- 



96 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

pliments to the Misses Mackintosh, I went to see them. 
One proved to be the rosy maiden, and I perceived that 
this fraiche Christina was witty and full of life. I dis- 
covered a friend in her. Her sister's well-known 
character taught me the secret of her sweet brightness. 
I learnt the destiny of that Christina, in whose manner 
to me respect always mingled with a charm which makes 
one forget one is old. Since then, thank God, I have 
always read my Bible more; I love her far better, and 
I would recall myself to her memory and ask her 
sometimes to put up a little prayer for me. 

"E. de la P." 



Christina had only been a day or two in Paris when 
she heard Francois Coillard speak at a meeting. His 
address impressed her deeply and re-kindled her mission- 
ary ardour, which had somewhat declined. Soon after- 
wards, he was introduced to her, and felt from the first 
moment that she only could complete his life. His first 
request, sent from Africa, was presented in the orthodox 
French fashion through their mutual friend, Mme. Andre 
Walther, in loco parentis, but her family disapproved it, 
all except her sister Kate. She was implored on all sides 
(as one letter said), " not to bury herself and her talents 
in Africa," while he was admonished that her particular 
gifts would but hamper a missionary, whose wife ought 
to be a domesticated character, and that only. In 
France at that time, a marriage was considered to be 
much more the concern of the society in which they 
moved than of the two people most interested, and the 
opposition was so strong that she yielded to it, probably 
for the only time in her life. Besides her teaching, she 
now devoted herself to work among the poor of Paris, 
and though she had never been trained, she had such 




MME. COILLARD, 1880. 



[To face p. 96. 



1860] 



BETROTHAL 



97 



aptitude for sick-nursing that she was claimed on all 
sides wherever there was illness. 

Two years later Francois Coillard wrote once more. 
In this second appeal she perceived a call from God 
which she could not resist ; but it was a terrible wrench 
to leave everything dear to her. She was no longer in 
her first girlhood, she had no illusions whatever as to the 
kind of life that awaited her ; and it was not the kind she 
liked : she now preferred civilisation to the wilds. Be- 
sides, going to Africa was very different then from now : 
it meant exile for life. Her widowed mother had become 
reconciled to the step she was taking, and wrote to her 
.atended son-in-law that she "would rather see her 
daughter a missionary than a princess." But opposition 
of au other kind was not lacking ; at this crisis of her 
life, the choice was deliberately put before her and as 
deliberately made. 

Her intended husband knew, not all but something 
of what she was renouncing when he wrote, "I do not 
know that I could do what you are doing, giving up all 
for an unknown country and an almost unknown husband." 

Only ore letter of hers at this time survives. 

Christina Mackintosh to Francois Coillard :— 

" Edinburgh, July 16, 1860. 
" We left Paris on the 5th, and dined that same day in 
London at six o'clock, having spent only twelve hours on 
the way ! Is it not wonderful, and very different from 
the pace of your heavy African waggon ? The next day 
we went down to Dyrham Park and remained there till 
Tuesday, it was a most delightful little rest . . . but 
unfortunately too short, as business obliged us to return 
to London. However, it was impossible not to carry 
away something of the holy peace and calm which per- 

8 



98 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



vades this household. The sole aim in the lives of 
Captain and Mrs. Trotter seems to be the glory of God. 
. . . I must tell you that I have also received from M. 
Casalis a beautiful copy of his work [Les Bassoutos] to 
present to our own Queen, and I am going to Holyrood 
Palace for that purpose on Tuesday first. It is not I per- 
sonally who am to make the presentation, but my dear 
friend Mme Hocede, who is the much beloved governess of 
the Eoyal children. . . . Alas ! alas ! there is not one line 
from the Hermitage [Leribe]. . . I am sure you can 
fancy how dreadful this suspense is for me, but I 
have so long ago committed this matter to the Lord's 
hand that I am determined not to allow myself to be 
discouraged by this detail, knowing how impossible it is 
to change it. . . . What do you say, dear Frank, to this 
letter all in English ? it would have been sad for me 
to write to you in a foreign language from home, for I 
cling so to your having this at least in common with 
those dear to me that you understand their tongue as well 
as your own. Is it not so ? " 

"How happy I am," he wrote, "to see that you per- 
ceive clearly the will of God in our union. Later on . . . 
that will be a source of strength and comfort. For in 
the days of disappointment or trial when Satan will 
whisper to your heart, ' What are you doing here ? ' you 
will be able to answer, ' God, my God, bade me go, and 
I have obeyed." "May I . . . by my constant love fill all 
the empty places of your heart." 

A few weeks' visit to Asnieres followed that she might 
know his mother, and Christina sailed for South Africa 
in the John Williams (November 23, 1860). " Such grief 
I never saw and can hardly bear to think of now," said her 
sister, writing of it forty-five years later. Those who 



1860] MEETING IN CAPE TOWN 99 



have passed through such experiences know that the 
sense of vocation in no way lessens the pain of parting, and 
indeed often makes it sharper. The heart which accepts 
that mysterious thing — the Call of God — suffers in 
advance the anguish of all the experiences to come, 
and at the moment there seems no joy, no element of 
compensation, only the conviction that it must be 
obeyed on peril of the soul. Indeed, the crisis of 
obedience is like death itself, for it is the step by which 
the soul passes from one sphere of being to another, and 
learns for the first time "to walk by faith and not by 
sight." Such is the moment to many when the grating of 
the gangway pulled ashore sounds the knell of the old life ; 
and the voyage just beginning forms the true parable of 
the life to come. 



Though the shore we hope to land on 

Only by report is known, 
Yet we freely all abandon, 

Led by that report alone; 
And with Jesus 
Through the trackless deep move on. 



Through a misunderstanding due to the postal eccen- 
tricities of those days, she landed at the Cape, whereas 
M. Coillard had gone to Port Elizabeth. The moment 
he learnt this, instead of waiting to go round by sea 
when the next boat should start, he set off on a break- 
neck journey overland to Cape Town, which he reached in 
record time. This brought down upon him an official 
rebuke from the Director in Paris for risking his life 
to save a few days' time in what was not strictly the 
business of his calling ; followed by an unofficial post- 
script to say that he was happy all the same to have such 
a proof that chivalry was not yet dead among the sons of 
France ! 

L OFC. 



100 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



At Cape Town her first words when they met were : 
" I have come to do the work of God with you, whatever 
it may be ; and remember this — Wherever God may call 
you, you shall never find me crossing your path of 
duty. ,} 

They were married on February 26, 1861, in the 
Union Church at Cape Town, by the Rev. A. Faure 
of the Dutch Eeformed Church, "who" (wrote the 
bridegroom to his mother) "loves me like his own son, 
and all the more because he is a descendant of the 
French Refugees." At once they set off for their distant 
home at Leribe, which, however, they did not reach till 
July 9th, as they spent a few months at other stations, 
where Mme. Coillard was initiated into the duties of her 
new life. ' ' I often wonder what you would think of me 
in my busy household life," she afterwards wrote to her 
sister. "I don't think I was ever exactly inactive, but 
certainly I always had a horror of tripotages in the 
cooking line." From the first she determined to make 
the very best of her new surroundings, as the following 
lines show, written by her husband to one of his new 
sisters. 

F. C. to Maegaket Mackintosh : — 

"Moeija, June 4, 1861. 
" . . . After two months' travelling our travelling 
home has lost nothing of its freshness. Every one is 
astounded in admiring the taste that has decorated it ; 
people can't believe it is a travelling waggon, it is so 
fresh and mignon, with its pretty curtains, its elegant 
pockets hung on either side, the leopard skin, the plants, 
&c, the whole forming, one would think, the eighth 
wonder of the world. Dear sister, you will say with 
a sigh that in Africa people make marvels out of very 



1861] HOME-SICKNESS 101 



little, and that's true. However, here even more than 
in Europe good taste is not a hors-d'oeuvre" 

His devotion, and the novelty and charm of African 
life, together with the warm welcome of her fellow- 
workers, made her happy from the first. However, after 
a few months, from home-sickness and the change of 
climate she fell really ill. Her outward energies did 
not slacken in the least, but her spirits drooped, and 
evening after evening (her day's work done), she would 
sit reading old journals, letters and other records of the 
past and shedding silent tears. At last one day, 
when she was alone, the conviction came that this 
brooding was very wrong. Instantly she gathered up 
all these memorials and destroyed them. She met her 
husband at the door, saying, "I have burnt them all. 
You shall never see me fretting any more. Forget thine 
own people and thy father's house." Thenceforth, their 
life was an unbroken idyll of thirty years. 



CHAPTEK VI 



EARLY MARRIED LIFE 
1861-1865 

Literary Labours — Moshesh and Samson — Dutch Friends — An Ex- 
President — Visit of Dr. Duff — Perils of Waters. 

IN the first years of their married life, the Coillards 
experienced many difficulties but also many bles- 
sings. They rarely had a roof over their heads; the 
opposition of the chief was such that they could seldom 
get any one to work for them, not even little girls to 
train in the kitchen. But the school prospered in 
Mme. Coillard's hands, and in 1862 they had the great 
happiness of baptizing their first two converts, Nkele, 
and the woman whose baby M. Coillard had named 
" Mother of Light." Nkele chose to take the name of 
Johanne (John) after John Bost, of whose goodness to 
incurables he had heard so much. M. Coillard always 
tried, and so did many of his colleagues, to interest 
and attach their people to their brothers in Europe, 
to make them feel the Church was one family. Two 
members of the Dutch Church were present on this 
occasion, and took the Communion with these black 
Christians — another joy to them. 

During this period M. Coillard did a great deal of 

102 



1861] LITERARY LABOURS 103 



literary work for the Mission. The translation of the 
Old Testament was being carried out at this time, but 
his share in it lay rather in revising what others had 
done and giving it literary finish. He devoted special 
attention to the Book of Proverbs : his extraordinary 
knowledge of colloquial Sesuto enabling him to make 
it a classic. Above all, however, he was anxious to give 
the Basutos a treasury of hymns. 

The importance of hymns and hymn-singing in early 
mission work is seldom realised except by those actually 
engaged in it ; by others this is generally looked down 
upon as a cheap and showy substitute for realities. 
M. Coillard attached the very greatest importance to 
it, as hardly second even to preaching where primitive 
savages were concerned. Not only is it attractive in 
itself (which preaching seldom is), and also a valuable 
instrument of discipline, but more than anything else 
it kindles a motive to action, and enables the native to 
hold fast the form of sound words. What the missionary 
has to do is to substitute right conceptions for wrong 
ones, and there are really only two ways of doing this, 
namely, by example and by constant repetition. Music, 
true music, fitted to right words not only conveys the 
idea acceptably (a great thing in itself), but it rouses 
something of the right feeling long before the ideas 
are fully grasped and inseparably connects the two in 
the memory : and gives to the natives for the first time 
a source of enjoyment which uplifts instead of degrading 
them. To the very end, he was constantly translating 
and adapting the most suitable from French and English 
sources (German he did not know), not only in order 
to give dignity and beauty to public worship, but to 
spread the Gospel. One of his favourites was the hymn 
for Trinity Sunday, " Holy, Holy, Holy/' which he trans- 
lated into Sesuto. He had the greatest faith in the power 



104 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



of Christian song to uplift a people ; and by that he under- 
stood not only "spiritual songs" but also secular ones, 
if they were the offspring of Christian hearts and minds.* 
It distressed him to hear the herd boys and reapers 
singing sacred words irreverently (for the Basutos, like 
sailors, often sing at their work), and so he and his 
friend M. Mabille wrote many little ditties of daily 
life to popular airs, which were quickly caught up by 
the children, and took the place of the heathen chants 
which for them had only unhallowed associations. Later 
on, it was M. Coillard who introduced the Tonic Sol-fa 
into the Basuto schools, where it nourished from the 
first. He had himself a keen ear and a pleasant tenor 
voice, but the higher forms of music he never had 
any opportunity of cultivating, much as he appreciated 
them. His successor, M. Dieterlen, writes : — 

"He was one of the best speakers of Sesuto in the 
Mission. M. Coillard had a taste for everything beautiful. 
He was an artist, and that tendency also appeared in his 
language. He had great gifts for literature and made 
use of them to a large extent. He also translated 
Kurtz's Bible History, largely used in our schools. 

" Hymn writing was one of his favourite occupations. 

" He used to do that with the aid of his friend Nathanael 
Makotoko, who is still living: that man used to come to 
M. Coillard's study early in the morning, they had a 
prayer meeting, and then worked at those translations. 
M. Coillard's hymns were from the first very popular, and 
they have lost none of their popularity, the music as well 
as the words suiting the taste of the Basutos. ... A 
very interesting contribution of his [is in] fables of 

* " The movement of sound so as to reach the soul for the educa- 
tion of it in virtue (we know not how) we call Music." — Plato, 
quoted by J. BusJcin. 



1861] MOSHESH AND SAMSON 105 



La Fontaine, translated or adapted by him. In that line 
he was wonderfully clever. His fables are perfect. The 
Basutos were delighted with them ; they are printed in 
our reading books. And children do not only read them, 
they ' act ' them . . . and that shows their value more 
than anything else. It is a pity he did not make more of 
those fables. He gave himself entirely to hymn writing, 
and nobody has yet dared to try to imitate him and write 
fables." 

Except this time before breakfast, he never gave work- 
ing hours to writing. It filled up the tedious moments of 
his journeys, sitting in a waggon or waiting at a ford. 
Many of his compositions were enclosed in letters to his 
wife. " How do you like these ? " runs one such note 
(October 13, 1869). " The first goes to the tune of ' Belle 
etoile que le soir,' the other one also goes to a canon. 
I don't know why my mind runs in canons, but I think it 
must be because they require at least two voices ; and I 
have need to create an illusion and fancy you by my 
side." 

One of their first guests (before they left their cottage) 
was Moshesh, who paid a visit of three weeks to his son 
Molapo, and who constantly invited himself to their house 

" One day at table I happened to speak of the Chinese, 
their customs, their civilisation, their industry, and when 
I had mentioned their long pig-tail, Moshesh, who had 
listened with profound interest, suddenly exclaimed, " But 
I know those people ! No doubt it was a Chinaman, that 
young man spoken of in the Bible, who had such skill and 
strength, and such long hair ; but he fell in love with a 
girl who cut his hair off, and then he became like another 
man." Then, turning to his people, he related, with 
details and commentaries, the story of Samson ! It was 



106 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



idle for me to remark that the long hair of the Chinese 
had nothing to do with their civilisation and their 
industry. The analogy with Scripture history had so 
struck him that I believe to this day he thinks Samson 
was a Chinaman." 

Moshesh was always fond of expounding, and often his 
knowledge of Old Testament customs, so like their own, 
threw a flood of light on the real significance of various 
passages. But in matters beyond his ken, as in this 
instance, his exegesis was apt to be rather wild. 

" Moshesh was accompanying so far the ambassadors 
of Panda, who were returning to Natal. In their honour 
he convoked an immense political assembly which was, as 
always, the occasion of general rejoicings. From a mound 
I watched this strange spectacle of three or four thousand 
people decked out in wild-beast skins, horns and feathers, 
spear and shield in hand, striking the ground in cadence, 
with the monotonous but war-like notes of their patriotic 
songs. In the midst of this vast circle, Moshesh, 
accoutred with feathers and skins, white as snow, dis- 
played astonishing agility. Warriors sprang forth one 
after another amid the applause of the crowd and em- 
phatically rehearsed their exploits and brandished their 
assegais. Then sham fights, gun reports, the sound of 
goat horns. . . . Amid the warriors in ancient garb the 
eye rested with pleasure on a troop in uniform and 
armed with guns. The chief was Mopeli. ... I like to 
record this little progress in civilisation." 

These last lines recall a characteristic trait. While 
abhorring war, M. Coillard always had the strongest 
sympathy with the military profession. His mind 
seemed to move in its imagery. Christianity, as he con- 
ceived it, was the march of an ever- victorious army ; to 



1861] NURSERY OF THE CHURCH 107 



him it meant a loyalty, not a philosophy, still less a 
ceremonial system. He had no other ambition than to 
be "a good soldier of Jesus Christ." "A French general " 
he once wrote, " told his aide-de-camp that the politeness 
of a soldier was obedience ; and I myself hold that in all 
circumstances our duty to our Master is fidelity 

Mme. Coillard to her Sister : — 

"... Every Saturday we go away in the forenoon and 
spend it up among the rocks, which command the whole 
village. F. likes to study his sermons there ; it is so 
quiet, and I take my work and sit beside him. It is so 
delightfully calm and retired ; we can just see the huts 
and the Basutos moving to and fro between them, and 
farther off still the nocks feeding in the pasture grounds. 
I am often struck with astonishment, when I bear F. 
reading to those people the Old Testament stories, at the 
resemblance between the manners of the Israelites and 
other primitive nations and the Basutos. Could you 
have watched their faces the other day as they listened to 
the story of Abraham, Eleazar, and Eebekah ; every 
word seemed so telling, she, though so rich, at the well 
and drawing water, indeed every detail comes home here 
with a force which dwellers in cities can never know." 

F. C. to Kev. — Dieny (at Asnieres) : — 

"Leribe, October 3, 1861. 
" Our school occupies a large part of our time. It is a 
part of the work which I think, myself, we have far too 
much neglected in our Mission. It has been forgotten 
that this is the nursery of the Church. The blows are all 
directed to those who are already grown up, rooted in 
paganism." 



108 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



F. C. to his Mother: — 

" Leribe, October 20, 1861. 
"You will surely have been very sad at receiving 
fewer letters from me lately. It is not because I am 
married, and that another has taken your place in my 
heart ; no, for loving her, I love you none the less. 
Besides your daughter loves you too, very dearly. She 
constantly talks about her visit to Asnieres, and how 
happy she was to make your acquaintance. You touched 
her heart deeply when you gave her a packet of my letters. 
And I myself was moved by it, and have often wondered 
what gave you such a happy idea; not that my letters 
are worth much, but because they could cheer my 
betrothed amid all the sorrow of parting, by assuring 
her that an affectionate son would not be an unloving 
husband." 

After describing the day's work, he continues : — 

" I don't speak of our cooking, which is simple, so 
simple that really I scarcely know what we do live on. 
We have no milk, because we have no cows ; no 
vegetables nor fruits, because we have no garden; nor 
meat, because we have no herd; and there is no 
butcher's shop here. However, each Saturday Christina 
depopulates my old poultry-yard, which, indeed, will 
soon be extinct. 

" In. the evening, if Christina is not too tired, she 
takes her work, and I read aloud to her. Do you 
still remember, dearest mother, when your little boy 
used to read aloud to you ? Sometimes I repeated 
and you sang your favourite hymn, Non, ce n'est pas 
mourir que dialler vers mon Dieu, and that one you 
used to make me repeat on my knees as a prayer, 
Source de lumiere et de vie. 



1861] A BUSY LIFE 



109 



" . . .1 have said nothing about old Maria. When 
Christina gave her the dress in your name she was 
delighted, and said she would like to kiss your hand. 
Then, turning to my wife, she said, ' This dress comes 
from my Grandmother: now my Mother will give me 
one too.' That pained me. I said : 

"'If your Grandmother could hear you speaking like 
that she would certainly take away the dress she has 
sent you. It is not our habit at home to require an 
ox when people give us a goat.' 

" In other ways her behaviour to my wife wounded me. 
She imagined that it was Christina who was to look 
after her and wait on her. The great secret was that 
Maria would have liked us to feed her differently from 
the others ; she also wished to be mistress, to order my 
wife about, and domineer over our two little house- 
girls. I would never have sent her away, out of respect 
for you, my dear mother. Moreover, she is very well 
installed in her hut, with two of her grandchildren, 
and when she is ill we send her tea or coffee." 

In one of his very last letters M. Coillard spoke of 
the pleasure he had in caring for some poor aged people 
out of love for his mother's memory, as he said. 

Mme. Coillard's life was as busy an one as her 
husband's. There were no tinned provisions then ; no 
ready-made clothing to be had : not even a sewing 
machine. " The sun," she wrote, " never finds us in 
bed, . . . and we go to bed about eleven p.m." In 
addition to superintending all house and garden work, 
feeding the animals, " which," as she told her sister, 
" are not pets, but necessary for our food," teaching 
in the school daily, visiting in the village, and in 
distant excursions for evangelising, she had to do all 
the sewing ; make candles ; make as well as mend all 



110 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the house linen, her own clothes, her husband's, and 
those of their servants (and clothes wear out very fast 
in such a life as theirs). After their return from exile 
she received a sewing machine as a present, to her 
great delight. "I do hope," she wrote, "now that I 
have this precious help, that I shall be enabled to 
consecrate the time thus saved to our work." 

The greatest difficulty of life in Basutoland is travel- 
ling. It was only in 1905 that the first bridge in the 
country was made, though it is a land of rivers and 
deep water-courses; the latter are dry in winter, but 
with the earliest rains, in an hour or two, they boil 
up into torrents of mud, which sweep away oxen, 
waggons and horses, and spread themselves out over 
the flat valleys in impassable lakes. In former days 
it was worse than it is now, for there were no roads. 
Drownings were painfully common ; they too often 
happen now. Wet or fine, the missionary who took 
his calling seriously must ride or walk through thunder- 
storms and floods, or under burning skies, as he often 
does to-day. All have these experiences, but few have 
described them so graphically as M. Coillard. Over and 
over again the story of "perils by waters" is renewed, 
always with fresh incidents and renewed thankfulness 
for deliverances. 

In his book, On the Threshold of Central Africa, 
he has related how Mme. Coillard herself once crossed 
the riyer in full flood, though only two days before 
she had seen a horse and his rider's body swept past 
her by the current and had been assured it was her 
husband's. She had waited for days to cross in order 
that she might not fail to keep their wedding day 
with him in the little turf cabin he had been building 
against her return. There was not in her a vestige 
of the Amazon glorying in her own feats of endurance. 



1861] AN EX-PRESIDENT 



111 



It was just the impulse of a loving woman who would 
brave fire and water rather than disappoint her husband. 
Over and over again is seen this disposition on their part 
to run risks which scarcely seemed worth while rather 
than fail to carry out their purposes at a settled time. 
It was all training for the future. 

Their increasingly friendly intercourse with their 
Dutch neighbours was frequently touched upon in 
their letters at this time. 

F. C. to the Journal des Missions : — 

" 1861. 

"Keturning [from a visit to Beersheba for Mme. 
Coillard's health] we paid a visit to an ex-President 
of the Orange Free State. It was evening; we found 
him like a patriarch with his children, folding his herds. 
[Mr. Hoffman] received us with the frankest cordiality. 
My object . . . was to procure a cow if possible. It 
was a prime necessity for us who had passed nearly 
a year without milk or only getting it with the greatest 
difficulty. But when I spoke of the price, ' Sir,' he 
said, 'the beast cost me nothing, she was born on 
the place. I often ask myself what I can do for the 
servants of God, but I do not know their needs. I 
bless God for making you pass this way. I know, by 
my own experience, what your privations must be 
where you are.' In vain I replied 'No.' He reiterated, 
' This costs me nothing. I am rich ; see how the 
Lord has blessed me.' Then he told how from being 
well off he had fallen into distress ; his wife, servant- 
less, had herself to grind the maize which supported 
this numerous family ; and he, crippled as he is, was 
forced to build ; how he met with sympathy, and was 
beginning to get on again, when he was elected Presi- 
dent, and how, finally, the Lord had visibly blessed 



112 COIL/LARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



him from the time he went back to private life. He 
counts his large cattle by hundreds, and the small by 
thousands. His wife, angelically sweet in looks and 
ways, seemed almost as moved as we were in hearing 
this story of trials past and blessed. 

C. C. to M. M. :— 

" Leeibe, March 24, 1862. 
'' How great was the treat afforded by the papers. It 
was only the night before that I had heard of the 
sudden death of Prince Albert. I leave you to guess 
whether I enjoyed all those comforting details. I put 
on my black dress, and, I assure you, mourned in my 
heart my country's sad loss in the removal of the 
guide and counsellor of our future King." 

The want of water, and other difficulties at Molapo's 
village, obliged them in 1862 to leave their cottage, and 
betake themselves to the present site of the station close 
under the mountain of Leribe. Here for two years they 
lived in their waggon, supplemented by a tent and a reed- 
screened shelter beneath the cliff of Leribe, which had long 
been the dwelling of cannibals. Building was hindered 
by the poverty of the Mission, the difficulty of obtaining 
labour (owing to the increasing hostility of the chief), and 
the rains frequently destroying their efforts. The work 
of evangelisation did not slacken. " I never saw any one 
work so hard as Frank does," wrote his wife, describing 
his almost daily expeditions on foot or on horseback, 
visiting from village to village, but at the time they saw 
little result from it all. They were both young, healthy, 
and perfectly happy, in spite of their many hardships, 
and as they had no little ones they often said they felt 
these less than many others. Still, the withholding of 



1862] 



METAPHYSICS 



113 



this blessing was always a great sorrow to Mme. Coillard. 
Both she and her husband loved children and were never 
happy without some in the household. They always 
reserved two evenings a week for study and reading, 
which M. Coillard considered a duty. The books his wife 
had brought out were a delight to him, though he could 
not always refrain from teasing her about their abstruse- 
ness. 

F. C. to C. C. :— 

" I really think we have killed the blue- stocking mouse. 
She was frisking about this evening in the fresh air, phi- 
losophising, no doubt, about the Properties of Matter, 
when we pursued and overtook her, the rogue ! How fat 
and sleek she was ! She has nibbled plenty out of your 
books. . . . Poor creature, she was charming, but a thirst 
for knowledge was her ruin." 

Mme. Coillard had a Scotch taste for metaphysics 
foreign to his mind, which was rather that of the poet or 
the artist. Indeed, in an early letter from Strasburg he 
begs to take the Classical course with his theology instead 
of Logic and Philosophy, which he calls "useless and 
dangerous studies." * In later life he thought otherwise, 
and advised all intending missionaries to take a uni- 
versity degree in as many subjects as possible. 

F. C. to the Journal des Missions : — 

"August, 1862. 
" Towards the end of July, one of my occupations 
was to cut down firewood in a ravine. . . . When we 

* Compare The Imitation of Christ, "What will profound logic 
. . avail thee ? " (chap. i. 3.), and again, " Nowhere do we find it 
written : ' Blessed are the Masters-in-Arts.' " These and many other 
passages can be matched almost word for word in F. C.'s early 
journals, though at that time he had not read Thomas a Kempis, 
the latter not being thought a wholesome writer for Protestants ! 

9 



114 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



returned, what was not our surprise to find Mr. C, an 
Israelite by origin, whom we had known at the Cape as a 
missionary among the Mohammedans, and who was now 
pastor of the Dutch Church, at Ladysmith, in Natal. 
Never did a visit cause such a sensation among the 
Basutos ! The rumour had spread that a Jewish pastor 
had just arrived, and everybody rushed to the manse to 
see him. Everybody was in ecstasies at the sight of this 
descendant of Abraham, Molapo not excepted. ' To-day,' 
said he, fixing his eyes on him, ' it is as if I saw a great 
king : ever since our missionaries have talked to us about 
the Jews my heart has desired to see one. I always 
wondered whether they really existed, and if they were 
like other people: to-day I am satisfied.' Then he set 
forth the differences he noted between Mr. C. and the 
other missionaries, and ended by quoting St. Paul with 
remarkable good sense and aptness. The next day, a 
crowd of heathen filled the chapel, doubtless as much to 
see as to hear this ' descendant of those who crucified our 
Lord.' It will mark an epoch in their lives." 

It makes one realise how rapid has been the develop- 
ment of South Africa to find that, not so very long ago, 
the natives had seen neither an Israelite nor a Chinaman ! 

Journal F. C. : — 

" Mr. C. had ridden night and day to invite me to take 
part in the dedication of a church at Bethlehem, a new 
village in the Free State. 

"The moonlight was magnificent. On arriving at 
Bethlehem, I looked for the new town. . . . Two or 
three tiny cabins — a long building roofed with zinc, the 
church — and all round it a little town of waggons and 
tents, brilliantly white and glistening. This was 
Bethlehem. 



1862] DUTCH SYMPATHY 115 



"From Saturday to Monday morning services upon 
services were held. One only came out of church to go 
in again ; catechism, prayer-meetings, reception of candi- 
dates, consecration of elders, baptisms, marriages, Holy 
Communion. . . . 

" Asked to conduct one meeting, I thought the occasion 
was not one to be wasted — the only one, perhaps, where I 
could speak frankly. I mentioned the fact . . . that this 
was the first time, to my knowledge, that a French 
missionary took part in such solemnities with the 
farmers. I touched on the prejudices existing against 
us, and showed how unjust they were, since we were 
carrying on among the natives a work of peace and love, 
preaching the same Gospel . . . beside the descendants 
of the French who had come to seek in this country the 
liberty to pray and serve God according to His Word. 
And if the Lord had so permitted it, was it not to renew 
the links of kindred and affection between the descendants 
of the refugees and the Christians of the Mother country, 
by concentrating on a common work the sympathy and 
sacrifices both of one and the other ? I also spoke of the 
Keformed Church of France, and so on. . . . 

" Such was the emotion, that several persons raised their 
voices to protest their brotherly love for the Churches of 
our country and their warm sympathy for our Mission. 
After that, our tent was never empty of people, who 
came to hear us talk French, the language of their 
forefathers. . . . 

" The next day Mr. C. handed me £10, specially collected 
for our school, and we ourselves received touching proofs 
of great affection. These good people implored me to 
visit them oftener, promising to put horses at my disposal 
every time I co Qld devote a Sunday to them. . . . This 
transformation in the disposition of the farmers, their 
interest in the cause of missions among the heathen, is 



116 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



something so new and extraordinary that we can but see 
in it the work of Him who turns the hearts of men like 
rivers of waters, and perhaps also an answer to the 
Universal Prayer of January.* 'He is faithful that 
promised.' (French version : ' He who makes the promises 
is faithful to keep them.') " 

1864. 

The visit of the great Dr. Duff from India to promote 
educational missions marked an epoch in the history of 
the Basuto Mission. He attended the Conference of 
Carmel in 1864, and at his suggestion six out-stations 
were at once founded (there are now about 160) as the 
direct outcome of his representations. " Place school- 
masters and evangelists everywhere," he said. " But we 
have not got any." "Then you must make them," he 
replied. The foundation of the Normal School was 
decided upon, and at this very conference M. Coillard was 
asked to undertake it. "Madame Coillard, they said, is so 
well qualified for that," [so he wrote to her], " but as for 
myself I have not enough self-confidence to accept such a 
responsibility." The outbreak of the war in the follow- 
ing year postponed its establishment, and as will be seen 
it was not they who eventually took charge of it, for, even 
then, they felt more especially called to evangelisation. 

C. C. to her Sister : — 

''January 7, 1864. 
"I write to you from a little hut we have just con- 
structed . . . not unlike an umbrella stuck in the ground. 
I assure you, such as it is, we are most delighted to have 

* The Week of Universal Prayer then just instituted by the 
Evangelical Alliance. 



1864] A HOME AT LAST 117 



this shelter, for the weather is very hot and the shade of 
a rock, though very romantic, is not always the most 
appropriate." 

At last, in the following August, a house of three rooms 
was finished. Mme. Coillard wrote, " I shall feel like a 
princess. We shall still cook in the open air and sleep in 
the tent ; the room is for eating and sitting in, we feel so 
the want of having no place where we can shut the door 
and be quiet for a little moment of the day." 

They were not destined long to enjoy it, however, for 
within a few months the war broke out, which was to 
drive them into exile for three years. 



CHAPTEE VII 



THE WAR WITH THE FREE STATE, AND LE SAO ANA'S 

AFFAIR 

1864-1866 

War with the Free State — Lesaoana's Affair — A Desperate Embassy — 
Adventures on the Frontier — The Storming of Thaba Bossio — 
Wepener's Day — The Broad Road — Panic at Leribe — Privations 
of the War. 

DUEING the years just recorded, the troubles be- 
tween the Boers and Basutos had never ceased. 
Neither party regarded the conditions of the hollow 
peace made in 1858. The Free Staters were deter- 
mined to secure the territory up to the Caledon Eiver 
(which they eventually succeeded in doing). The Basutos 
were no less determined to assert their claims up to 
the Modder Eiver. The younger chiefs declared they 
had not been parties to the agreement made by 
Moshesh as to a boundary line between these two 
limits. Further complications arose from the promise 
made, without sufficiently careful survey and land- 
markings, that the farmers should own lands they had 
built upon, but that Basutos who had sown corn on 
these lands might return the next season to reap it. 
Very often when the latter did so, they found that the 
farmer, weary of defending himself against cattle thefts, 

us 



1864] PROJECTS FOR THE ZAMBESI 119 



had forsaken the farm, perhaps only for a time, to find 
fresh pasture, and they would take advantage of this to 
hoe and sow another patch, thus continually renewing 
excuses to re-occupy land which in their hearts they 
considered still belonged to the tribe. 

The great obstacle to peace was a certain unruly chief 
named Lesaoana (already mentioned, p. 82), the nephew 
of Moshesh, whose lawless deeds compromised both him 
and his sons ; and shortly afterwards nearly provoked a 
war, which would have changed the history of Basuto- 
land — and perhaps of South Africa — had not M. Coillard 
intervened as a peacemaker at the critical moment. 

The witch-doctors for their own profit did their best 
to stir up strife, in order that they might sell the secrets 
of victory, and the chiefs under their influence grew more 
and more hostile to the Gospel, which meanwhile was 
spreading fast among the people themselves. Out- 
stations were springing up everywhere, and M. Coillard's 
friend, A. Mabille, at Mori j a, was developing a mission- 
ary spirit in the Basutos themselves. It was a com- 
paratively new idea then (though so familiar now) that 
the converted natives should themselves go forth to 
preach ; but M. Mabille was a man of far-reaching 
views, and he was already thinking of thus evangelising 
the interior of Africa. He had written even in September, 
1863, "I do wish so much that our Society should send 
some missionaries to the Makololos discovered by Living- 
stone, and speaking Sesuto (see p. 42), for they are 
in reality true Basutos. With the New Testament in 
their hands, and taking some Christians from here, I 
think the enterprise would be quite feasible. . . . There 
are two or three Basuto Christians who would willingly 
go even to the Zambesi. ... I have long been thinking 
of it, but who will put his hand to the work ? " No one 
guessed then that M. Coillard was to be the man. 



120 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



All this progress was interrupted by the outbreak of 
hostilities. 

F. C. to the Paeis Committee : — 

"Leribe, December 5, 1864. 

" I do not know if others have already told you of events 
here. The Governor of the Cape, as arbitrator, has fixed 
the limits of Basutoland and the Orange Free State. . . . 
The President of the Free State gave the Basutos a 
month to evacuate a portion of their country, where 
they had already ploughed and sown. In a country 
where there are neither railways nor telegraphs one 
may well be astonished at the rigour of such a decree, 
for before Moshesh knew of it, or could assemble the 
petty chiefs, or these latter could return home and 
publish the order in the most distant villages, there 
was very little of this month of grace left. . . . Then 
without providing themselves with corn for the journey 
they suddenly left their villages and took refuge on this 
side of the Caledon. For days there were nothing but 
horsemen, . . . troops of cattle filling the air with their 
bellowing ; women and children seeking a hole to hide in 
under the rocks. The site of the station is a large horse- 
shoe, formed by the sides of a mountain ; . . . this place 
is called the little white caves. . . . To-day there is not 
one without inhabitants, even those overhanging the 
most frightful precipices. 

" I saw thousands of women and little children wan- 
dering shelterless and foodless in the mountains covered 
with snow. Oh, what miseries ! what evils ! Johanne, 
my companion, reminded me that Jesus had said, ' Pray 
that your flight be not in the winter.' He was 
astonished that such a word should be in the Bible, 
and that the Saviour should know what it was to flee 
in winter. 



1864] OUTBREAK OF WAR 121 



"Already famine is cruelly felt among these poor fugi- 
tives: the children cry, the mothers besiege our doors, 
while the men, at the risk of their lives, go and get 
corn in the abandoned villages. 

" The incessant rains are spoiling the corn in the 
fields : the locusts have destroyed everything in some 
parts of the Free State. . . . Our Basutos are losing 
their heads in the midst of these disasters. Would you 
believe it ? among these very fugitives who are dying of 
hunger, there are some who possess immense herds, 
which they allow to graze in the cornfields of those 
who are giving them hospitality [i.e., the missionaries]. 
When remonstrated with, they reply coldly, ' It is your 
fault : we cannot help it. Why did you not defend our 
rights ; why did you let us be deprived of our dwellings 
and lands? ' " 

The Boer attack was expected at Leribe at the end 
of November, 1864, on the very eve of the day fixed 
for the founding of the church. Molapo's religious 
feelings had been revived by the sight of the enemy 
at tbeir gates : at his orders all the natives assembled 
in enormous numbers, together with the Kev. J. Scott, 
of Bloemfontein, and Mr. Orpen, and several other 
Europeans. Molapo made a speech, in which he ridi- 
culed the heathen customs he had just been promoting, 
and ascribed the recent successes of the Free Staters 
to their Day of Prayer.* A subscription list was opened, 
to which he promised to contribute largely, and M. 
Coillard laid, or rather dug, the foundations ; the first 
stone had not been cut. Ten years were to elapse before 
the church was complete. 

* Letter of Mr. Orpen to Civil Commissioner at Aliwal (Basutoland 
Records, vol. iii. p. 324). 



122 COTLLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



THE AFFAIR OF LESAOANA. 

F. C. to Kev. Cochet : — 

"Thaba Bo&sio, December 31, 1864. 
"I should have liked more time in which to give yon 
the news of our part of the world. It is there that 
the clouds are piling up, and where in all probability 
the storm will burst. Molapo is peaceably disposed, 
and does as much as a Mosuto can do to keep his 
people in check. That is to say he only partially 
succeeds. 

" Unfortunately that rascal Lesaoana acts in an entirely 
different manner. It is he who has let loose his people 
to go and pillage the farms in his neighbourhood, under 
pretext, he says, of scouting. I have done everything I 
could to bring him to his senses and to induce him 
to pay a fine. The fine he presented was a mockery. 
When the Boer commando camped beside us, he insulted 
them. He was given five days to pay a slight fine 
(considering the damage) of seventy-two oxen : he gave, 
I think, seven, of which three were sick — and the next 
day, as the Boers were inspanning to return to their 
homes, lo and behold Lesaoana's men attacked them 
three times ! It was only at the third time that the 
Boers retaliated, and killed, they say, two Basutos. 

1 'Mr. Van Brandis (a Boer captain), learning this 
state of affairs, revoked the permission he had given to 
Molapo to transport the corn which is growing in the 
Free State, under conditions almost impossible to 
accept, and declares that until Lesaoana has been 
punished, whoever crosses the frontier, with or without 
a pass, for any reason whatsoever except to bring letters 
to himself, will be put to death. The President must 
have returned to our parts. I have come to see the Old 



1865] LESAOANA'S AFFAIR 123 



Man of the Mountain, but I have no great hope that he 
will act. I greatly fear that before long you will hear 
they are fighting where we are." 

Lesaoana, the nephew of Moshesh, vaunted himself as 
a free lance. He was governed by one passion — liberty 
to plunder, and more especially to plunder the Boers. 
Nominally Molapo was his liege lord, but whether 
Molapo or his elder brother Letsie called him to 
account, Lesaoana always took skilful advantage of the 
jealousy existing between the brothers (the invariable 
fruit of polygamy), and screened himself from the wrath 
of the one by vowing allegiance to the other. War 
was declared about June 5, 1865, the President of 
the Free State calling on his burghers to put an end to 
the depredations of the Basutos, while Moshesh, in his 
proclamation, insisted that the war had been forced upon 
him, that it was for the defence of his people's soil, and 
that he had no quarrel with the British, who were not 
to be molested in any way. Lesaoana early in the same 
year had petitioned the rulers of the Orange Free State 
to let him detach himself from his tribe and place himself 
and his people under their protection. By this manoeuvre 
he would have been enabled to raid the Basutos, his own 
countrymen, under pretence of helping his new masters 
in the war which he and every one else saw was 
impending. The President, fearing no doubt to catch 
a Tartar, declined this proffered mark of favour, and 
thenceforth Lesaoana seemed determined to get what 
he could out of the Boers, if not in one way, then in 
another. If he could not be their parasite he would be 
their robber. Many of the Free Staters had farms in 
Natal, to which they regularly removed for six months 
of the year, and on the outbreak of hostilities they 
naturally sent their families and cattle into British 



124 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



territory for security while they went on commando. 
This gave Lesaoana his opportunity. In defiance of his 
chief's proclamation, he declared that he considered the 
cattle of his enemies to be lawful spoil wherever found ; 
and within a few days of the ultimatum he began raiding 
the Boers in every direction, whether or not they were 
British subjects or on neutral territory. In less than three 
weeks he had led a mounted army, two or three thousand 
strong, into Natal across the Drakensberg into the Klip 
Biver country, and had plundered several farms, carrying 
off cattle. In a second foray, several Dutch farmers and 
Zulus were (falsely, as it turned out), reported to be mur- 
dered, and more cattle carried off. The number was said 
to be 10,000, but it afterwards proved to be less than half 
that amount. This roused the Natal Colony to fury : a 
general conflagration was feared. The Zulus were as 
eager for vengeance as the white men. The news had 
reached the Acting Governor on June 29th. By July 5th 
his demand for reparation had already been received by 
Molapo, who wrote an abject letter of apology, re- 
pudiating Lesaoana's conduct, " which was not a pre- 
meditated act by any of the higher chiefs, but the 
wrong-headed act of a turbulent and ignorant under- 
captain, who shall be duly punished for his evil-doing 
in whatever way His Excellency may require," and 
begged "incase evil should come of Lesaoana's fault," 
to put himself under the protection of the Governor 
of Natal. This was Molapo' s first independent overture 
for British Protection. 

At this time Theophilus Shepstone was the Secretary 
for Native Affairs in Natal. Himself the son of a 
missionary, and brought up from childhood among 
them, he had acquired an extraordinary influence over 
the Zulus of Natal. They regarded him as a chief of 
their own, and gave him the name of Somptseu, by which 



1865] THE RAID INTO NATAL 125 



he always signed himself when corresponding on their 
behalf. He marched a large force of Zulus and Euro- 
peans to the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains (the 
frontier of Basutoland), and sent Molapo word that, on 
receiving his letters, he had halted at Van Reenen's Pass, 
and would there await some proof of the sincerity of his 
professions. Otherwise a still larger force would be 
collected and would invade Basutoland. Besides the 
loss actually sustained, he said, the Basutos would have 
to pay the expenses of its mobilisation, £8,000 to 
£10,000. 

The Commander-in-Chief meanwhile held a regiment 
ready at East London, and a vessel, the Valorous, at 
Algoa Bay to fetch troops from Mauritius if needed. 

Molapo and his people were panic-stricken. Another 
pitso was held, at which M. Coillard was present. They 
hastily collected all the cattle they could, and decided to 
send it to the British camp without delay. Nathanael 
Makotoko, always the Mercury of this Olympus, was to 
be their ambassador to Mr. Shepstone, and they implored 
M. Coillard to go with him as interpreter. This he 
consented to do. It seems, however, that Molapo must 
have counted on him as an advocate more than as an 
interpreter ; and because he did not obtain all he hoped 
for, he bore an undying grudge against his missionary 
from that time forward. 

Molapo in his letter, carried by Makotoko, again asked 
to dissociate himself from his tribe, and to place himself 
under the protection of the British ; and in a later letter 
he begged this even more insistently. It appeared that 
Moshesh, while quite ready to apologise for Lesaoana's 
conduct, was not prepared to compel his punishment. 
In fact, the Basuto chiefs were all afraid to tackle such 
a formidable person. This gave the British authorities 
the impression that Moshesh and his sons were not acting 



126 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



in good faith ; that Lesaoana was a sort of privateer's- 
man (" a fill-t he-field," the Civil Commissioner called 
him), whose lawless deeds they would profit by or 
repudiate according as they found most convenient. 
Consequently, the High Commissioner would not accept 
the responsibility of treating with Molapo apart from the 
whole Basuto nation. In the midst of all these negotia- 
tions, Lesaoana and his people surrounded a peace- 
able party of Transvaalers, Mr. Pretorius (a relative 
of the President) and his three sons, on a mountain 
pass, and murdered them in cold blood. Of course 
the Transvaal Government thereupon flew to arms as 
well. Thus, the Basutos were attacked on three sides 
at once. 

The key to the whole trouble lay in the enmity of the 
half-brothers Letsie and Molapo. The former talked his 
aged father over. Their thought evidently was that as 
Molapo's territory of Leribe adjoined Natal and the 
Transvaal, and as these two colonies threatened Basuto- 
land, he would bear the brunt of it and save them. 
Therefore they left him to his fate, their own hands 
being full with fighting the Free State. The result was 
that Molapo, refused by the British Government and 
determined not to acknowledge his brother's para- 
mountcy, made a treaty on his own account with 
President Brand and accepted his protection, thus 
bringing the whole Leribe district for a time within 
the Free State limits. This, as will hereafter be seen, 
was what really led to the Coillards' banishment from 
their station. 

But this is looking far ahead. Makotoko's embassy, 
as an embassy, proved successful. It reached De Jager's 
Farm, Witzie's Hoek, on July 19th. M. Coillard had 
started straight away from the pitso, without even going 
home to bid goodbye to his wife. 



1865] 



THE ANT-EATER 



He greatly disliked being dragged into political affairs. 
His mind moved on a different plane. Since the with- 
drawal of the Sovereignty and hence of the Civil 
Commissioner in the Free State, the Basuto chiefs 
had been again dependent upon the missionaries as 
intermediaries between them and the civilised world; 
but M. Coillard had always managed to avoid acting 
officially in this capacity, and in the whole of the 
Basutoland Becords there are only five letters signed 
by him, the first being the one now sent from Molapo. 
He consented to accompany the little band on this 
occasion, as a forlorn hope, hoping to avert war, 
and in this he was successful. It was impossible 
for him to know then, as can be seen now, what con- 
sequences were averted by a right impulse at the right 
moment. The journey occupied two or three days. 

The party consisted of himself and Nathanael Mako- 
toko, with their respective followers. Makotoko, as 
Molapo's first cousin, was his usual representative on 
these occasions. He was M. Coillard's devoted friend 
and disciple, but not yet a Christian, and as before said 
he was intensely superstitious. It was mid- winter ; they 
had to travel as much as possible by night, to avoid being 
seen by the enemy ; the Drakensberge were covered with 
snow ; they had not enough to eat or to cover them- 
selves, and the fearful cold reduced their spirits to the 
lowest ebb. To their dismay, the very first evening they 
met an ant-eater, or aardvark, a creature which very 
rarely shows itself by day, and which the Basutos regard 
as an infallible herald of misfortune. All, including the 
ambassador himself, wanted to turn back at once, but 
M. Coillard would not allow them, reminding them that 
as messengers of peace, they had a Divine escort. 
Indeed, the whole story brings to mind that of Elisha 
and the Syrians in 2 Kings vi. : 



128 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with 
them. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, 
and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire 
round about them." 

The Basutos, however, saw no chariots of fire, arid as 
they met with many adventures, they exclaimed in chorus 
at every critical moment : " The ant-eater, Moruti, the 
ant-eater, you see ! " At last, all difficulties surmounted, 
they came in sight of the Zulu camp. Makotoko, 
dauntless in war, was now seized with panic. The 
Zulus owed him a good many scores for blows inflicted 
in days gone by, and he feared that, unarmed and 
outnumbered as they were, the little party might be 
massacred. He begged M. Coillard on no account to 
address him as Makotoko, the name of his manhood 
by which he was well known, for fear the Zulus should 
recognise him. 

Mr. Shepstone received them courteously, offered them 
a much-needed evening meal, and seating them around 
himself, called upon the Zulus for a war-dance in their 
honour. The army complied con amore, and kept it up 
all night, shouting, " Give us those Basutos, let us eat 
them up." Meanwhile, the indunas were paying their 
respects to the white visitor. 

" Who are those Basutos? " asked one old warrior. 

" My servants," answered M. Coillard. 

" Yes ? And that man who rides by your side : he has 
the bearing of a servant, truly ! " (In Africa, it is quite 
impossible to mistake a chief's air of dignity.) 

" That is my friend," replied M. Coillard. 

" And your friend's name? " 

"Nathanael." 

" Oh, indeed ! " 

The Zulu asked no more questions, but on taking leave 
he said, " Tell your friend Makotoko that I salute him." 



THE COURT FOOL POSING AS A CRAKE. LEALUI, UPPER ZAMBESI. 




1865] SHEPSTONE'S EXPEDITION 129 



" My friend is called Nathanael." 

The old induna put his face close to M. Coillard's and 
whispered, laughing, " I knew it was Makotoko from the 
first moment, but he is all right. You are our guests 
to-night ! " 

Mr. Shepstone then requested one of the Boers who 
accompanied the Impi (Zulu regiment) to take the 
visitors to a farm where they could sleep, as they had 
to return next day. M. Coillard shared this man's 
room. About three a.m. the Boer got up, loaded his 
firearms, and went away very softly. It afterwards 
appeared that he had ridden away in the night to warn 
all the outposts not to let the party escape their hands. 
It did not seem to occur to him that Mr. Shepstone 
would send them back to Molapo with a safe-conduct. 
At any rate, the motto of the hour was, " Shoot first — 
inquire afterwards." Fortunately, M. Coillard sus- 
pected something of the kind, and put his escort on 
their guard. Mr. Shepstone consented not to move 
his army for the present. He inquired into their 
circumstances, and gave them, besides a passport, 
several pack-mules, loaded with stores on behalf of 
the Government. As they had only been able to buy 
one sack of corn at an exorbitant price for eight or 
nine months, they were more than thankful. The party 
was fired upon several times, and once nearly killed by 
the pickets, but, owing to the precautions taken by their 
leader, who, as above said, suspected such attacks would 
be made, they evaded them successfully. 

It was a short but exciting experience, and one from 
which M. Coillard did not expect to return alive. He 
feared an ambush or some broil among the natives in 
which all the white men would be massacred on the spot, 
and the note which he addressed to his wife from the 
Basutos' pitso was, in fact, a farewell for life. 

10 



130 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



"Hoetsie's [i.e., Witzie's] Hoek, 

" Wednesday, July, 1865. 
" My Beloved,— A little word by the hand of Molapo, 
in case he arrives before me. I hope you are not too 
uneasy about me. Poor darling ! What serious times ! 
I think of you night and day. The Lord keep you and 
reunite us soon. I do not think I have made a mistake 
in coming here. I did it for the sake of peace, to avoid 
bloodshed, and for the sake of these poor Basutos, so 
hard and ungrateful as they are. I am going to find 
Mr. Shepstone to-day, and on Saturday, if all goes well, 
I shall be with you. . . . Oh, if only I knew what was 
going on at home. If the Boers come to our parts before 
my return, I know that you have nothing to fear from 
them. May the Lord give us always the strength we 
need for every circumstance. He is our refuge and 
fortress. This is not an empty word ; we have often had 
the happy experience of it. You know how much I love 
you, and what happy moments we have spent together. 
Have you never regretted that the moments pass ! Well, 
we have Eternity before us — all Eternity. I am in the 
hands of the Lord, and you too. I must indeed stop, but 
the heart flows on (le coeur ne tarit pas). You know 
that. I am yours, tout a toi apres JDieu. " Fbank." 

The High Commissioner, on receiving the report of 
Molapo's submission, took a lenient view of the affair, 
and said that, as the ruling family repudiated Lesaoana's 
conduct, they must not be charged with the expenses of 
mobilisation, more especially as Mr. Shepstone reported 
that the first accounts had been much exaggerated and 
that no one had been murdered at all.* 

* The sequel is curious. The Acting Governor, Colonel B , was 

very angry that the Secretary for Native Affairs had halted at the 
border instead of invading Basutoland and taking the cattle fine by 



1865] FRONTIER ADVENTURES 131 



However, Molapo failed to keep faith in respect of the 
fine he had promised to pay; perhaps, as the High 
Commissioner himself suggested, he could not so long 
as the Basutos were all engaged in fighting the Free 
State. 

Shortly afterwards, one Sunday afternoon, the Coillards 
received the visit of a Mr. S., a personal friend who 
was accompanying the Free State patrol across the river. 
While they were in the house having dinner, armed and 
mounted Basutos filled the compound and summoned 
their missionary to deliver up his visitor to them. 
Naturally he refused. The Basutos, highly excited, 
replied that they would kill him if he did not, and for 
a few moments it seemed as if they would. However, 
showing a bold front, he represented to them that by 
their code as much as by his own he could not possibly 
betray a guest, and at last they said, "We admit that; 
we will wait outside and kill him ourselves when he 
leaves your door." 

" You cannot do that either," said M. Coillard. " On 
the mission ground he is safe for five hundred yards from 
my door. You must not move till he is clear of the 
station." 

The Basutos, true to their sporting instincts, accepted 
the challenge. " We will not touch him till he is on our 

force. Accordingly he sent the Colonial Secretary a petition from 
the people of Natal, praying to be set free from the High Commis- 
sioner's authority, so that they " could uphold British honour among 
the native tribes whenever need so required." The Colonial Secre- 
tary acknowledged the petition, drily remarking that he had presented 
it to the Queen, but that he could not advise Her Majesty to take 
any steps in the matter, as in his opinion it would probably lead to 
endless native wars, of which the Imperial Government would have 
to bear the cost in men and money. In course of time a large 
portion of the fine was paid, and three years later Basutoland came 
peaceably under British protection by the earnest request of its chiefs. 
(See Basutoland Records, vol. Hi. pp. 462, 470, 494, 626, 638.) 



132 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



ground." The station of Leribe is built close under a 
horse-shoe cliff, from which the ground slopes rapidly 
away for about a mile down to the river. The Basutos 
ranged themselves along this cliff, while Mr. S. mounted 
and dashed across the compound, but the instant his 
horse cleared the hedge they all discharged their guns at 
him and galloped in pursuit. Happily the start saved 
him, and he was soon out of reach across the river. 

Later on, a small commando (not the same one) came 
up to the station and requisitioned food and forage. 
While they were being served with dinner the Basutos 
again surrounded the house, all carrying arms. The Boers, 
who had left theirs outside the door, were terribly 
alarmed ; thinking they were caught in a trap, they 
implored their host to save their lives. He replied that 
he could only do so while they remained at the station ; 
they had come at their own risk and must go at their 
own risk. However, he went out, and tried to persuade 
the Basutos to go away peaceably. This they would not 
do, but they consented to parley. At once they began 
shouting at the Boers, when the latter came out, " Why 
do you kill women and children ? You are teaching us 
a new kind of warfare ; take care, we may learn it and 
make use of it." 

" We do not kill them," said the commandant, and went 
on to explain that occasionally young soldiers would get 
out of hand and do things of which their superior officers 
disapproved. The Basutos were far from satisfied : they 
instanced a case where seven women had been killed. 
The commandant admitted it, and expressed his horror 
and reprobation of such a crime. " And," continued the 
Basutos, " at such and such a place you found an old, 
helpless man in a hut alone, and you set fire to it and 
burnt him to death." "Yes, indeed," said the com- 
mandant, " and here are some pieces of his skull." He 



1865] SIEGE OF THABA BOSSIO 133 



was about to explain that they did not know the poor 
old man was inside when the hut was burnt, and pro- 
duced the bones from his pocket to show with what 
respect he had treated the remains when he discovered 
them. But the Basutos interpreted his action otherwise, 
would hear no reason, howled him down, and threatened 
a general massacre. With infinite difficulty they were 
persuaded by M. Coillard to leave the station yard ; and 
then, again, the Boers had to escape as best they could 
with five hundred yards' start, hotly pursued from the 
moment they left the " sanctuary." For all this a 
reckoning was to come. 

As before said, the Boers had delivered an ultimatum 
to Moshesh on June 5, 1865. They assembled an army 
with artillery, and formed three divisions, which entered 
Basutoland by as many different roads, and concentrated 
round Thaba Bossio, which they invested. It was their in- 
tention to fortify the mountain and rule the whole country 
from it. Those who were not engaged in the siege, both 
Boers and Basutos, formed flying columns, which raided 
in every direction. The mission stations were not spared 
— indeed, they were the first to suffer. Mr. Brand, the 
President of the Free State, gave strict orders that the 
missionaries and their property were to be respected, but 
these orders were disregarded, and in several cases both 
they and the native villages that had grown up around 
them were destroyed. The station of Mekuatling alone 
was attacked fourteen times. Mekuatling was the capi- 
tal of the chief Molitsane, and lay just at the northern 
entrance to Basutoland from Harrysmith : hence its 
sufferings. The fighting raged fiercest round Thaba 
Bossio. The mission station there was completely 
ravaged. This mouDtain closes the passes of the Malou- 
tis (Blue Mountains), in which the Basutos and their 
herds had taken refuge as in a natural fortress. The 



134 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



chief warriors were with Moshesh, the others in the 
valley ready to defend the passes, if their stronghold 
were taken by assault. 

Two attacks were made, one on August 5th and one 
a week later. Both were repulsed, the first with ex- 
treme difficulty. It seemed impossible that the Basutos 
could resist another, as they were at the end of their 
resources. Moshesh had collected between 70,000 and 
80,000 head of cattle on the plateau which forms the 
crown of Thaba Bossio, thinking his people would fight 
to save their herds if they would not rally round their 
chiefs. The mountain camp was soon in a terrible 
state. The cattle died by thousands ; maddened by thirst 
and hunger, they flung themselves over the precipices. 
The Basutos made ramparts of their bodies and threw 
down stones and spears at the invaders very adroitly, but 
their guns were few and poor, and they fired badly. 
There was only one narrow, rocky path up to the flat 
summit, a zigzag on which two people could not stand 
abreast, and this had to be held against the enemy. 

The Basutos had brought the medical missionary, Dr. 
Lautre, into their camp to tend the sick and wounded, 
an office which he performed with equal devotion for 
the Boers. In consequence, both sides accused him of 
treachery, and some Basutos tried to murder him as a spy. 

Moshesh had all along been surrounded by witch- 
doctors, who performed the rites usual on such occasions. 
Before the second assault, however, he assembled his 
people, and required them to humble themselves for their 
sins, setting the example himself of a public confession, 
after which he called upon the Christians present to 
intercede with Jehovah, the only true God, for the 
pardon of the Basutos and their deliverance from their 
enemies.* 

* Nathanael Makotoko, who was present, related this to M. 



1865] STORMING OF THE FORTRESS 135 



The fortress was stormed on August 4th. The Free 
Staters led by Wepener (" the best and bravest of them 
all," as one of the French missionaries wrote), were 
confident of success, for the Basutos, though out-number- 
ing them, were very badly armed, and if they had any 
artillery, it was worthless. Just as victory seemed within 
their grasp their leader fell, and not only the escalading 
party, but the whole force supporting them, fled in panic. 
Why, will never be known. The citadel was saved ! 

The following were the official accounts given. The 
form of Thaba Bossio must be explained. A steep, grassy 
slope, like the base of any other mountain, is crowned by 
a perpendicular, and in some places overhanging cliff, 
surrounding the summit on all sides. The form is 
common in Basutoland, but not all are equally steep 
all round like Thaba Bossio. 

" The party [1,200 strong under Wepener] stormed up the mis- 
sionary footpath. On arrival at the portal at the top of the open 
ascent, they found that strong stone walls had been built across the 
long, narrow, steep and rocky ladder leading to the utmost summit 
of the mountain, at the distance of every few yards. When the 
first of these was reached Wepener fell, shot through the heart, and 
died immediately, one or two of his bravest men falling by his side. * 

" The retreat from the top is unaccountable, as at the time the enemy 
was actually retiring gradually to the top, and our men were in actual 
possession of some of their barricades, chaffing the Basutos, asking 
them to show themselves. . . . The Baralongs a»d burghers at the 
Mission House ran long before it was necessary. In fact they might 
have remained in possession altogether. 

" The Boers [had] proceeded about three parts of the way up when 
tremendous yells and screams were heard from the Kaffirs, with a 
rushing noise like a thousand horsemen in full charge. Our un- 
fortunate but gallant stormers were seen coming at a frightful pace 
down the mountain, dislodging the stones in their hurry, and falling 



Coillard, and he to the present writer when visiting Thaba Bossio 
in 1903. 

* Letter signed John Burnet, Basutoland Records, vol. iii. p. 4-*3. 



136 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



over each other in their frantic haste, whilst all who got wounded and 
fell in that rush were left to their fate. The only cause assigned is 
that when the men half-way down the mountain saw Commandant 
Wessels returning wounded, they became alarmed and caused the 
panic." * 

It has often been asserted that the bodies of Wepener 
and his fallen comrades were mutilated by the Basutos 
for medicine. This is not true. The Christian Basutos 
brought them in, and Dr. L autre buried them himself. 

This victory at Thaba Bossio and the evident answer 
to their prayers made a great impression on Moshesh and 
his people. To those (and there were many) who knew 
the Old Testament well, it must have appeared like the 
flight of the Syrians from Samaria (2 Kings vii. 6, 7). 

" For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of 
chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host, wherefore 
they arose and fled in the twilight and left the camp as it was and 
fled for their lives." 

As for the rushing noise, it is well known that savages 
charging in battle have some secret of producing it by 
whirling their spears or a piece of wood above their heads, 
but even if the Basutos did this (of which there is no 
evidence), it still does not account for the panic of the 
Free Staters, who were perfectly accustomed to barbaric 
warfare. It had seemed as if nothing could save them, 
but the words of a missionary's daughter written at the 
time came true. "I cannot believe God will forsake the 
Basutos just when they are beginning to turn to Him." 
It proved to be the crisis of the nation's history and the 
beginning of its present prosperity. It was also the 
beginning of a spiritual awakening. 

At first, however, all this was not apparent. It is true 

* Basutoland Becords, vol. iii. p. 454, Official Report of The Friend 
of the Free State. 



1865] MANTSUPHA 



137 



that at the close of that day Moshesh called his people 
together to give thanks, and like Constantine confessed 
Christ as the conqueror. He seemed on the point of 
embracing Christianity, both personally and officially. 
But the forces of heathenism were too strong and they 
prevailed. It was the custom of the Basutos after battle to 
stand in running water, while the witch-doctors sprinkled 
them to cleanse them from blood-guiltiness and thus to 
prevent the spirits of their slaughtered enemies from 
haunting them. For conforming to these and other 
heathen rites many of the Christians had to be put 
under Church discipline, but others were staunch, and 
to their influence was due the great awakening that 
afterwards took place. Among those who never forgot 
the experiences of this day was Nathanael Makotoko, 
who had stood on that narrow pass like a black Leonidas 
defending their Thermopylae and had received a wound of 
which he still bears the scar. 

The war continued, but neither side wanted to risk 
battle and loss of life. Each loudly accused the other 
of cowardice and skulking, and it degenerated into a 
game of cattle-snatching and farm-burning which deso- 
lated the whole region. Moshesh wished to surrender 
himself and his country to the British rather than submit 
to the Free State, and piteously invoked the help and 
counsel of his missionaries. But he played fast and loose 
with them just as he did with his would-be allies, giving 
himself up to the devices of the magicians, and in 
particular to those of a prophetess called Mantsupha. 
This witch declared she worshipped the same God as 
*the missionaries, but that as she had herself been to 
Heaven, her information was first-hand, whereas theirs 
was only second-hand from a book. This information 
was, first that polygamy was lawful ; secondly, that the 
way to heaven was not a narrow way as the missionaries 



138 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



maintained, but a very broad way, for as God was the 
Supreme Chief many people must always be coming and 
going from this place, and consequently the road had to 
be very wide indeed. 

In reality the old chief was trying to rally his people 
to make a last stand, and was therefore appealing to 
national feeling through national customs and traditions. 

F. C. to his Mother : — 

" September 4, 1865. 
" The disunion among the Basutos, their cowardice, is 
something incredible. Moshesh is alone with a handful 
of men on his mountain, besieged and closely invested 
by the army of the Free State. His cattle are dying by 
thousands, for want of water and pasture, after having 
devoured the huts which it is said have been covered 
with ox hides. From one day to another we expect to 
see Molapo attacked by the Boers of the Orange Free 
State, and those of the Transvaal Bepublic who have also 
just declared war against the Basutos, so that there is 
not much hope for this unfortunate tribe. Molapo, who 
from the beginning has protested against Lesaoana's 
conduct and has tried, but in vain, to put things right, 
is now trying to make it possible to offer the English 
authorities 4,000 or 5,000 head of cattle. We hope that, 
by this means, he and his people will obtain the protec- 
tion of the British Government, if the latter should have 
soon to begin hostilities (i.e., against the rest of the tribe). 
I myself have given a horse and an ox. I am not rich, and 
that makes a considerable hole in my small herd. But 
we are at such a deadlock that we would do anything to 
get out of it. 

" But if the English Government should refuse 
Molapo's homage, and according to the terms of its last 



1865] PRIVATIONS OF THE WAR 139 



proclamation should consider him as one with the rest 
of the tribe, we personally should have nothing to fear. 
And to set your mind entirely at rest, my dear mother, I 
am going to translate for you part of one of Mr. Shep- 
stone's letters (who is at the head of native affairs in 
Natal). You do not forget that some time ago I went to 
the English camp in the Colony where this gentleman 
and other officers overwhelmed me with kind attentions. 
Since then I have had several very friendly letters from 
him; this is part of the last." 

Tk. from F. C.'s French. 

"De Jager's Farm, September 14, 1865. 
" My dear Sir, — Many thanks for your kind letters and your 
friendly expressions. I am sure you will use all your influence to bring 
Molapo to free himself and his people from the responsibility the 
Government has laid upon them, on account of the actions of a part 
of his nation. I hope our demands will be met, without our being 
obliged to resort to force. But if we are so obliged, I am quite sure 
that you have nothing to fear, either for your station or your 
property, whoever the person may be on whom would devolve the 
supreme command. Naturally war demoralises individuals, but our 
forces, black and white, will receive the strictest orders and will be 
kept under control. I must add that ' the Zulus ' are easier to 
govern than you think, and in any case, more tractable than the 
Basutos. So relieve your mind of all uneasiness about your 
safety. . . . Pray give my compliments to Mrs. Coillard. I wish 
I could do more to soothe the difficulties and privations of her 
position, &c." 

"We have been very short of everything since the 
beginning of the war. The political troubles having 
prevented us from going to the white people's for stores, 
coffee, sugar, tea, all were exhausted. To be sure a plant 
had been pointed out to us in the fields which was said 
to make good tea ; bran and burnt maize were said to 
make excellent coffee. But these are horrible decoctions, 
and indeed one must be more slaves to tea and coffee 



140 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



than we are, to make faces over such stuff. A glass of 
water is much better. Still, dear Mother, the Lord 
has not forgotten us. He has fed us like Elijah in the 
desert. It would be difficult to say exactly from what 
quarters our provisions came, but anyhow we have nearly 
always had something. However, the want of coffee is 
nothing . . . but candles ! that is the misery ! As the 
natives here anoint themselves more than anywhere else, 
we cannot procure suet ; for a long while past our oil and 
our bought candles were finished ; Eachel made us a few 
now and then with suet, to which she added the grease 
from the soup. So you can think with what joy we 
received the six pounds of candles, the coffee and the 
sugar which Mr. Shepstone has just sent us. 

" September 2&th. 

" . . . We are witnessing sad sights these days. I told 
you that Molapo was preparing to send 4,000 or 5,000 
oxen as homage to the English Government. If he had 
done it in good time all would have been saved. But he 
delayed and then his people have almost refused to give 
the cattle, so that he had scarcely 300 oxen and horses 
collected when already the English Government wrote 
to him to put an end to all the negotiations, holding 
Molapo responsible for the rest of the tribe. To add 
to his misfortunes, last Saturday the President of the 
Transvaal Eepublic wrote to Molapo to announce to him 
that if he did not give prompt satisfaction tc his Govern- 
ment for the pillage and murders committed by the 
Basutos on the citizens of the Eepublic, in four days they 
would come to require it with arms in their hands. 

"Panic seized everybody. Yesterday, with Christina, 
I went to the village to preach : we could hardly get 
fifty people together. The station is transformed into a 



1865] 



PANIC AT LERIBE 



141 



perfect Bethesda. People bring us the old, the blind, 
the infirm, the sick, most of them without food. 

" Bachael and Lea, the twin girls of Kemuel who have 
been with us so long and whom my wife had succeeded 
in training so well, are going to flee with their little 
brother and their parents : they are afraid of being 
carried off into slavery ; all our young girls are flying 
with their parents : my faithful Johanne also, leaving 
me his blind father and his old mother. But Makotoko 
has begged me to receive his wife and child. 

" Lebibe, December 13, 1865. 
"Let me record here the first token of affection or 
gratitude I have ever received from a Mosuto. Makotoko 
has lent me two milch cows for his wife and son who 
are with me, and has offered me as a present a magnifi- 
cent red ox. ' The splendour of his heart, and the pledge 
of the great affection he bears me, and the gratitude he 
has vowed to me.' And why ? Because I have consented 
to his entreaties that I would receive his little family 
here and protect it in this time of danger. Oh, how this 
touched me and did me good ! " 



CHAPTEE VIII 



WAR AND EXPULSION FROM BASUTOLAND 
1866 

Dangerous Illness — A Lonely Ride— The Attack on Mekuatling — 
Expulsion of the Missionaries — Molapo's Treachery. 

F. C. TO his Mothee : — 

" Mekuatling, January 19, 1866. 
" "X7"0U will wonder how it is I am here in time of war ; 

JL and you will be still more astonished when I tell 
you that I have left Leribe since December 14th. I then 
left the house on horseback, only for a few days, full of 
health and life. Although the army of the Free State 
was in these quarters, I wanted to risk it, so as to try 
and get the European mail which we had not received 
since the Conference last May. Hoping to reach Molapo's 
camp and pass the night there, I left Leribe late and did 
not hurry. But what was not my astonishment on 
arriving there to find Molapo had left for Thaba Bossio, 
and to be assured that the Boers had already passed the 
Caledon close to Berea. The sun was going down. I 
therefore decided ... to continue my journey and reach 
Berea the same evening. I tied a white handkerchief 
to the end of a long reed as a white flag and, not ex- 
pecting anything pleasant from a meeting with the Boers, 

142 



1866] DANGEROUS ILLNESS 143 



I galloped. The darkness and the absence of Boers on 
my way rendered this precaution unnecessary. But I 
arrived at the house of our good friends, the Maitins, half 
dead with fatigue. I thought I should faint as I came 
into the house ; and they could not get over their 
astonishment at seeing me arrive in such circumstances. 
I was happy to find the post. ... I read all the letters 
addressed to me before I went to sleep, but I reserved to 
my dear Christina the pleasure of opening her own. 

" On the Friday, December 15th, in the night I was 
seized with such violent internal pains that I could 
hardly keep from shrieking. . . . My good friends spent 
the rest of the night beside my bed. . . . On the Sunday 
such alarming symptoms set in that they thought of 
sending for a doctor. The nearest was at least seventy 
miles away : it was Eugene Casalis, but how could he 
be brought when the Boers were already everywhere? 
Molapo fortunately was encamped a few miles from 
Berea; and they hastened to inform him of my state, 
begging him to have a letter transmitted instantly to 
Dr. Casalis, [who] set or! at two in the morning and 
arrived at Berea in the evening. He was alarmed at my 
condition and though, at my entreaty, they sent a mes- 
senger for my beloved Christina, he thought it right to 
send a second to tell her that at sight of the letter she 
must leave the waggon and come on horseback. Of 
course, alarmed at this news, she left the waggon with 
our two servants, who had no protection but a white flag, 
and started on horseback. " 

The writer has often heard M. Coillard tell this story. 
Mme. Coillard had to saddle her horse herself, and start 
without even waiting to change her dress for a riding 
habit. The poor people of the station saw their only 
protection go when she left. The whole country was in 



144 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



arms : the Boers shooting all the blacks and the Basutos 
all the whites at sight. They had reached a stage of 
mutual exasperation at which neither age nor sex was 
spared. But the missionaries and native Christians were 
between two fires, regarded as traitors by both sides. 
Hence Mme. Coillard's servants refused to accompany 
her, hoping thereby to dissuade her from starting. "When 
they found nothing would prevent her, some of them 
followed, but not on the road, taking cover among the 
rocks, and only joining her as an escort after dark. At 
the time of writing this letter, M. Coillard had not 
learned all the details. 

F. C. TO his Motheb : — 

" Oh, what a journey. Think of covering more than 
sixty miles weeping and with the thought that I was 
gone ! Night overtook her, the guide lost his wa> , and 
she was wandering more than three hours among the 
ravines without advancing. She had the prudence to 
off-saddle the horse, who could do no more, and throwing 
herself on the ground under a sky heavy with clouds, she 
poured out her sorrow unrestrainedly before her God, 
her only Protector. At two o'clock (the afternoon of 
the next day) she reached Berea, and had the joy of 
hearing that an improvement had set in. The waggon 
arrived two days later, having passed quite close to the 
Boer camp without having been seen, and without being 
molested anywhere. ... I had an internal inflammation 
where a tumour had formed which might have had the 
gravest consequences. However, after two or three days 
they thought me convalescent, and sat me wrapped up 
in a chair. They tried to make me eat, but I had no 
appetite. Soon a pain began in the side and got so 
much worse that my poor wife, terrified, sent an express 
to Dr. Casalis. It was pleurisy in the right lung. 



1866] STATE OF BASUTOLAND 145 



M. told nie that indeed they had very little hope and 
that I might go at any moment. . . . My beloved one 
did not lose hope like the others . . . doubtless an angel 
had come by night and whispered in her ear the Lord's 
words ... * This sickness is not unto death but for the 
glory of God.' . . . She told me so, and I was the more 
impressed as I soon obtained relief from a blister below 
the shoulder blade. From that time I gradually got 
better. My strength has come back so quickly that my 
convalescence is as great a miracle to every one around 
me as the issue of the malady itself. It would be difficult 
to tell you all the goodness showered upon me during 
my illness. . . . 

" It is terrible to fall sick in time of war, far from 
one's home, in the house of friends who are full of heart 
but whose provisions were exhausted, and in a country 
where one can procure nothing. . . . 

" My dear mother, have no fear about us, . . . not only 
have we not received, either from Boer or natives, any of 
the insults and annoyances of which most of our brethren 
have had to complain, but we have received nothing but 
kindness, especially from the side of the Boers. 

" The country is in an appalling state of confusion. 
For long past we have been without any provisions 
whatever. We had to make coffee from roast bran to 
receive the envoys of the British Government [MM. 
Burnet and Coleman], and I had to kill some oxen I 
possessed to feed our own people. The number of the 
famine-stricken is increasing every day, and these poor 
creatures look to us as their providence. It is terrible to 
have to tell people who are dying of hunger that one has 
nothing, and these unfortunates will not believe one. 

" I have spoken a great deal about my poor self, but you 
know my heart is full of you. Tell me. how you have 
passed the winter, and what your needs are. . . . Unfor- 

11 



146 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



tunately the President of the Free State, by a decree, 
deprives us missionaries of all correspondence." 

The foregoing letter was written on January 19th, from 
Mekuatling, a stage on the return journey to their own 
station. Four days later, Mekuatling was again attacked. 
The Daumas had to leave, and the Coillards made their 
way back to Leribe. 

The Boers had resolved upon a supreme effort to subdue 
the Basutos, and the Volksraad had decreed that all the 
missionaries were at once to abandon their stations, and 
leave the country under penalty of being treated as com- 
batants. Only three voices opposed this vote. One of 
them was that of President Brand, who made an eloquent 
plea, showing how dangerous and wrong it would be to 
deprive the Basutos of their one restraining influence. 
But he had no right of veto, so the measure was carried 
out. It involved the confiscation of their cattle, the 
ruin of all the houses, churches and schools, and in so far 
as it was human, of the work itself. But the work of 
missions is superhuman, and the loss of their missionaries 
for a time was to bring in a blessing undreamt of, in the 
conversion and restoration of hundreds of souls. 

To return to Mekuatling. It was the time of the 
Quarterly Communion of the Basutos. A number of 
Christian natives had assembled from all parts, the other 
churches and stations being closed ; they hid through 
Sunday, and after nightfall the Communion service took 
place. As the village had been destroyed, and only a few 
temporary huts were standing, many of the women and 
children were sheltered in the church. The men slept 
in the open air : it was summer time. During the night 
the station was surrounded by the Boers, who made a 



1866] MEKUATLING ATTACKED 147 



sudden attack at dawn.* They had evidently thought the 
meeting was a ruse to collect a number of fighting men, 
but it was next so : the assemblage was unarmed, and 
mostly consisted of women, aged men, and children, 
though there appear to have been a few combatants 
(refugees). M. Daumas was the first to be aroused. 
He wrote : — 

" What an awakening. The firing echoed all round 
us. I ventured out to find the Commandant, who wanted 
to know what belonged to us. My son Agenor (a young 
boy) was almost killed by a ball which fell at his feet. 
As I was speaking to the Commandant, my wife, who 
was on the stoep of the house, cried out that they were 
killing our servants who were trying to take cover in the 
garden. As the firing went on, I ran to the bottom 
of the gardens . . . and there I had the sorrow of finding 
the corpses of several young men who had fallen dead 
one on the top of the other . . . among others our 
shepherd, a boy of fifteen. Another of our servants 
was mortally wounded." 

Mr. Daumas's letter is too long to quote in full : he 
adds that when the Commandant found that some of 
their prisoners were his own servants, he at once had 
them untied and restored. Unfortunately, those killed 
could not be restored to life. 

M. Coillard's account was as follows : — 

" Mekuatling lies in the hollow of a crescent-shaped 

* This was the usual method pursued by the Free State generals 
in this war. The noise of the firing aroused the inhabitants, who 
were shob down indiscriminately as they ran out of their huts to see 
what was happening. Several instances are given in the Basutoland 
Records, with lists of the non-combatants killed on each occasion. 



148 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



kopje, the horns sloping gently down to the plain. At 
dawn, my servant appeared at the door of my hut, ashen 
grey. ' The Boers, the Boers are upon us,' he cried. I 
dragged myself out of bed and looked out. The sky-line 
seemed black with Boers, who were pouring down the 
horns of the crescent and filling the station. I struggled 
on through a perfect storm of bullets ; providentially not 
one wounded me. . . . The ground was covered with the 
dead and dying. The two daughters of M. Daumas 
were on the stoep, trying to staunch the wounds of their 
two servants. 

"I found my way to the Commandant, a personal 
friend of my own, and besought him to stop the firing. 
1 War is war,' I said, ' and if these people were fighting 
men, I would say nothing. But you can see they are 
all unarmed : they have come to a Church festival : it 
is like slaughtering sheep.' 

" The Commandant replied at first that his orders did 
not allow him to take cognizance of that circumstance. 
Seeing my entreaties were unavailing I determined to 
save the lives of my own people if possible. ' You see 
how weak and ill I am. I cannot reach my own station 
without the help of my servants. Give me a safe conduct 
for these three men.' ' You ask a great thing of me, I 
do not think I can grant it,' said the Commandant. I 
still urged my plea. He was touched at last, seeing I was 
almost fainting, he asked their names, and wrote out a 
pass for them, saying, however : ' If they are seen by 
any of our people, they will probably be shot at sight 
without being asked whether they have a safe-conduct or 
not. So they must go at their own risk.' My wife and 
I went off with them as soon as possible ; and oh ! the 
sights we saw on the way home, travelling after dark 
to avoid observation — the villages reduced to ashes, the 
hills echoing with the howling of Kaffir dogs : the nights 



1866] 



EXPULSION 



149 



filled with the laughter of jackals and hysenas, which told 
us when we passed the scenes of recent slaughter." 

The adjutant's despatch to the President is given in 
Vol. iii. p. 102 of the Basutoland Records. The attacking 
party numbered 300, who killed 10 and took 24 prisoners ; 
number of wounded not specified. From this account it 
would seem that M. Coillard's plea was not wholly 
ineffectual. 

A few weeks later the Daumas' were carried off to 
Bloemfontein with most of their property, and afterwards 
took refuge in Natal. 

Meantime, Molapo had contrived to secure himself by 
accepting the suzerainty of the Free State, and in con- 
sequence the Coillards were not disturbed at Leribe when 
all their colleagues had been expelled. In the middle of 
March, however, orders came that they too must leave. 
The Christians of Leribe begged their chief to profit by 
the treaty he had made with the Free State to gain per- 
mission for their missionary to stay. They little knew — 
what only came to light afterwards — that Molapo himself 
was the cause of this command. He had made such 
representations, or rather misrepresentations, to the 
President about M. Coillard's character and influence that 
the former felt he had no alternative but to remove 
him. It has always been a question why the President, 
instead of accepting these falsehoods and acting upon 
them, did not inform M. Coillard and give him the chance 
of repudiating them in Molapo' s presence. The explana- 
tion probably lies in the treachery by which Molapo 
contrived to prevent a meeting between his missionary 
and the President of the Free State (see p. 152). "Armed 
men brought waggons to our door and carried us off in 
such haste that Mme. Coillard had not even time to take 
her bread from the oven ! . . . Bidding goodbye to our 



150 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



weeping flock, we set off exiles from our only home on 
earth, and followed the waggons, where they had hurriedly 
piled up our property. 'Make the best of it,' said the 
Commandant, M. de Villiers, who was a personal friend 
of mine, and who did his best to cheer us up in his own 
way. ' Leave nothing behind, for you will never come 
back here.' " 

F. C. to the Paeis Committee : — 

" Haeeysmith, April 16, 1866. 
" . . . What we suffered during these long months 
of isolation and privations in the midst of continual 
alarms, is easier understood than described. Only once 
or twice did a few smuggled letters find the forbidden way 
to our house. 

" It was towards the middle of March that the General 
of the Free State came in the name of his Government 
to signify to us the order to leave Basutoland in six days, 
under penalty of seeing our property confiscated and 
ourselves prisoners of war. He added that it cost him 
much to carry out this painful mission, the more so as I 
was personally known to him, and had never given the 
Boers any cause for suspicion. In vain I reasoned and 
protested : all I could obtain was, thanks to my ill-health, 
two weeks instead of six days to pack up in. We worked 
night and day, helped by Makotoko, the only man who 
had courage and affection enough to stop on the place. 
But we had not enough cases, and how could we make 
them without planks or nails ? I had to take my book- 
cases to pieces, and demolish our ceilings, and then with 
the help of some ox hides steeped in water, we managed 
as well as we could. . . . 

" . . . On the 2nd of April the Commandant . . . 
arrived with five waggons and an escort of 20 or 30 



1866] A PERILOUS BIVOUAC 151 



cavalry at our door. In a few hours all was over. . . . 
They made us travel by day and by night, so that we 
were more dead than alive on reaching Bethlehem. 
Some kind Scotch friends, who were not afraid to load 
us with kindnesses, notwithstanding our unpopularity, 
obtained a few hours' rest for us, and the promise not to 
make us travel by night any more. On the other hand, 
they (the escort) obliged us to make an immense detour 
on pretext of rejoining the camp. We missed it. Imagine 
our position ! Six waggons, hundreds of head of cattle 
[the price paid by Molapo for the protection of the 
O.F.S.], and scarcely a score of armed men, bivouacking 
on a slope in face of a petty Zulu chief who would not 
hear of peace, and who had often attacked their camps 
by night. Nobody slept but ourselves. But the Lord 
watched over us, and we reached Harrysmith safe and 
sound. 

" What I have just said must not lead you to doubt of 
M. de Villiers' good intentions. On the contrary, I wish 
to add most emphatically that on the whole, the 
arbitrary order of the Free State Government has been 
carried out with great humanity. M. de Villiers and 
his party surrounded us with the greatest respect and 
attentions all the way, so that when the moment came 
to part we felt we were bidding goodbye to friends. . . . 

" You will have noticed that the order to leave Basuto- 
land was notified to us when Molapo had already con- 
cluded an armistice : and that it was after the peace was 
concluded, the treaty signed and Molapo and his people 
duly and finally recognised as subjects of the Free State 
that we were driven away without mercy. . . . On the 
way we received a fresh official letter from the Govern- 
ment, dated from Bloemfontein, 16th March (that is, 
while the negotiations of peace between Molapo and the 
Free State were going on) , ordering us to leave the country 



152 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



before the 20th of the same month, and if we wished to 
remain in the Free State not to reside at Harrysmith, 
as they knew we intended to do, but at Kronstadt on the 
banks of the Vaal Eiver. [This was to prevent the possi- 
bility of visits to Leribe.] 

'* . . . It is very painful to have to add that in all these 
affairs Molapo's conduct only aggravated our troubles. 
... As the day of our departure drew near, I asked him 
for the men we required for our journey, and for whom I 
had obtained a passport from the authorities of the Free 
State. . . . He replied that he had nobody, and that I 
had better apply to the Zulus. Offensive as this message 
was and great as was still my own weakness, I rode over 
to his fortress to speak to him, and bid farewell to the 
tribe. . . . Thereupon some Church members . . . begged 
Molapo to take some steps to keep us at our post. He 
opposed this for a long time, but at last yielded to their 
entreaties so far as to send a letter to the Boer General 
in which he asked, in terms that might have compromised 
me seriously, ' that my departure should be delayed a few 
days, so that I could act as his interpreter when the 
President came.' 

"When he arrived, the General hastened to let me 
know. Unfortunately, Molapo, by his own avowal, pur- 
posely kept back the letter addressed to me, and only sent 
it to me several days later. I hastened to the camp ; it 
was too late — the President had left. I wrote a letter of 
apology to his Honour Mr. Brand, but there was nothing 
more to be done but to prepare for departure. 

"I succeeded in having a last interview with Molapo. 
He seemed very little moved by our departure, and did 
not disguise his intention of seizing our house and 
gardens the moment we left. We know nothing of the 
other missionaries, either where they are, nor when and 
how they were driven from the country. We have not 



1866] JOURNEY TO NATAL 153 

had a single letter ; we do not know what has happened 
to our correspondence. 

" Pieteemaeitzbueg, June 29, 1866. 

" After two days' march [from Harrysmith] the axle of 
the hind wheel broke. We were on the summit of the 
Drakensberg. We had to set the tent of the waggon on 
the ground with all our things and provisions, and send 
back the wheels to a wheelwright at Harrysmith. During 
this time we were overtaken by the snow, then by rain. 
We had with us two families of Basutos with several 
little children, whom we sheltered as best we could. At 
last the carriage came back, and we started again. But 
two days afterwards the new axle broke (being made of 
green wood), and we were detained three or four days on 
the veld. This time we were in Natal with a blue sky 
over our heads, . . . with some pious Dutch farmers 
who showered kindnesses upon us. 

" After the most tiring journey we have ever made, we 
arrived here the 15th of last month. We did not know 
one person, but the Lord had prepared our way. A 
number of people from the Governor's family, the 
employes of the Government, the officers of the garri- 
son, down to the very working men, came to show us 
their sympathy. Among them we have made precious 
friends, who seem to rival each other in making our 
stay here happy. 

" Unfortunately we arrived in the climax of the com- 
mercial crisis. Every day new failures are announced : 
hardly any business is done, there is no speculation, 
money is scarce, and the distress extreme. 

" Owing to the change of pasture nearly all our cattle 
died when we arrived here. Our friends pressed me to 
sell the remainder at any price. Could you believe that 



154 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



a young ox [the price of trained oxen varied from £8 to 
£12] I had bought for the waggon fetched 12s. ? 

" A few days after our arrival my poor wife fell ill with 
a bilious fever, which kept her three weeks in bed. . . . 
When I look back on our life in Basutoland, all our 
trials, all our privations, all the scenes we have witnessed 
— is it surprising that we should experience a reaction ? " 

The sufferings and courage of the missionaries, especially 
those who had young families, it is impossible to describe. 
One said to the writer only quite lately: " I have twice 
seen my home burnt down before my eyes. I and my 
children have lived for months in winter on mealies dug 
up from a pit in the ground, smelling horribly, and costing 
£5 the bag ; and we were surrounded by starving natives 
whom we had to feed too, and witness their sufferings. 
One of my daughters was born in the midst of all that." 
Counting children, nearly eighty persons were involved. 
And it was not the heathen who were persecuting them 
thus ; it was white men, vaunting themselves Christians. 
Public opinion in Europe and in the Cape and Natal was 
roused, and the South African press uttered a universal 
cry of protest. The Evangelicals of France appealed to 
the Emperor and also to the English Colonial Minister. 
The Christians of Holland sent a remonstrance to the 
Free State Government. The small and poor Waldensian 
Churches proved their sympathy by special contributions 
for their needs. Meanwhile, the expulsion of the mis- 
sionaries went on, and the pillage of their houses. It was a 
military measure, the necessity of which they thought was 
proved by the fact that the Basutos lost heart when they 
saw their friends carried off. Molapo, as aforesaid, refused 
by the British Government, had contrived to make peace 
on his own account with the Free State while retaining a 



1866] EXILED MISSIONARIES 155 



certain measure of independence. The defection of all 
his subjects, forming so large a portion of the tribe, dis- 
couraged the independent party still further, and it 
seemed as if the nation's doom was sealed. The terms 
offered by the President were that Moshesh should 
retain his independence, but it was to be limited to 
Thaba Bossio (an area of fifteen square miles), and all 
the rest of Basutoland was to be divided up into farms 
for the Free Staters. 

The expelled missionaries presented a request to the 
Orange Free State that an inquiry should be made into 
their conduct, and the grounds for their expulsion made 
public. This was refused, which refusal, as the Friend of 
the Free State observed, amounted to an acquittal, but 
nothing came of it. 



CHAPTEE IX 



EXILE IN NATAL 



1866-1868 



Bishop Colenso — Awakening in Basutoland — The American Missions 
— Work Among Zulus 



-L and recuperation, but faith was tested in many 
ways. " Patmos," M. Coillard called it. 

Madame Coillard wrote to her sister: "My heart is 
unutterably sad; more sad than I can tell. It seems 
to us sometimes as if our faith must fail in this sea of 
troubles, at others we see Christ very near us 'walking 
on the waters.' One word from Him can still their 
raging. Oh ! that He would speak it. . . ." 

The Government of the Orange Free State, far from 
offering any compensation, demanded that the missionaries, 
or their Society, should purchase the site of each station 
from them at ^6100 each, which must be paid within two 
months if the offer was not to be forfeited. This, if 
bought, they should be free to hold as a farm or sell for 
a price to be paid into the funds of their Society, but they 
must never again occupy it as missionaries.* The Society 
at the time had a deficit of 70,000 francs, and in any case 




banishment in Natal was a time of rest 



* Basutoland Becords, vol. iii. p. 735. 

156 



1866] EXILE IN NATAL 



157 



the two months' grace did not allow time in those days 
to apply to Paris for the money. 

The Coillards were almost strangers in Natal, but 
friends rallied to them on every hand. The American 
missionaries in particular showed them most brotherly 
kindness. One of their number, being obliged to go away 
for his health, they offered them his station of Ifumi for 
the time being, and for the next two years this became 
their home. They thus learned the Zulu language, which 
was to prove of priceless value to them later on. 

They had with them two boys ; one a child of four or 
five, was Samuel, the son of Nathanael, who had confided 
him to them almost from his birth (it was considered a 
compliment to do so). The other one, Joas, was older; 
his father had begged them to educate him. Joas turned 
out extremely well, and became an evangelist of the 
Basuto (French) Church. In 1903 his foster-father had 
the happiness of being entertained by him in his own 
"manse," and of being introduced to his son, also study- 
ing for the ministry, and baptized " Francis Coillard." 

While they lived in Natal they could not at first do 
much active mission work, as their health had been so 
broken down. But M. Coillard was very much in request 
to preach among the white people, and constantly went 
to Durban, or Maritzburg to preach on Sundays. Nothing 
is more remarkable than the maturing of his mind and 
character during this time. 

No doubt this was partly due to his wife's unconscious 
influence. She believed in him so absolutely, and looked 
up to him with such love and reverence that his self- 
confidence was strengthened and his discernment steadied 
by her support. Moreover, whereas his temperament was 
that of the poet and recluse, she had lived among the 
practical activities of life, and had come to Africa not from 
the seclusion of College but from the world of men and 



158 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



women. Another help was the habit of good reading 
which they both kept up. M. Coillard often in later 
years referred to St. Paul's injunction to Timothy to give 
attendance to reading : a precept which he thought far 
too much neglected by most missionaries. One of the last 
orders he sent to England was for about ^30 worth of new 
theological and other works for the use of the Zambesi 
missionaries. The knowledge of English that came to 
him through his marriage opened to him new fields of 
study, which he entered with delight. 

But no intellectual exercise would account for the 
insight and wisdom of which he gave increasing proofs. 
It was doubtless a special gift of God, for his earlier 
judgments of men and things had often been mistaken, 
and were reversed in later life. Only very rarely was he 
conscious of any definite guidance ; but in prayer and 
fasting light seemed to be given, and his path grew clear. 
In everything that bore however remotely upon his life's 
task he eventually showed an insight that almost amounted 
to clairvoyance; even in the matters of high policy in 
South Africa, which hardly came within his range. (For 
instance, as long ago as 1903, he foretold to the present 
writer the troubles which he expected would soon arise 
among the Zulus, and did arise in 1906.) 

At this time Dr. Colenso was Bishop of Natal. He 
came to pay them a visit of sympathy directly they 
arrived, offered them his books, and invited them to the 
episcopal residence. M. Coillard was attracted to him 
from the first ; but he was rather taken aback on being 
introduced in a friend's drawing-room to a coloured 
gentleman, whose first words were, "Do you not know 
me ? I am the Zulu who converted Colenso ! " It is need- 
less, perhaps, to say how far he was from partaking the 
Bishop's well-known theological views, nor did he share 
his political opinions ; but he always referred with affec- 



1866] BISHOP COLENSO 159 



tionate regret to their intercourse, which was renewed 
from time to time. Mme. Coillard, too, wrote to her 
family, referring to his ecclesiastical opponents : — 

"Keally, Dr. Colenso compels his foes to admire his 
noble character, and I wish those who professed to know 
more of truth would commend it to others as he does." 

As health improved both he and his wife spent much time 
visiting the hospitals and the poorer white people, among 
whom just at this time there was great distress and sickness. 
Often they were called up in the night to such cases, and 
Mme. Coillard's nursing powers were in much request. 

From time to time they received visits from members 
of their flock in Basutoland, who brought the news that 
a spiritual movement had broken out all through the 
country. The sufferings of the invasion and the exile of 
their pastors had been the means of arousing them. The 
more earnest Christians gathered little groups around 
them in the caves and river-beds (sluits) to pray and hear 
the Word of God : backsliders were restored, waverers 
decided, and among the latter was Nathanael Makotoko. 
Poor Nathanael, who had so often before thought he was 
a Christian, only to drop back into heathen ways, had 
now experienced the Great Change in a manner unmis- 
takable, and from that time forward has remained 
steadfast in the Faith and a blessing and example to all 
around him. 

Still the way was not open for them to go back, even 
after some of their colleagues had done so, for it was the 
chief Molapo himself who opposed the return of his too 
faithful minister ; and since he had placed himself under 
the direct protection of the Orange Free State, the 
Dutch ministers of that Church were preparing to place 
a missionary of their own at Leribe. 



160 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" This," wrote M. Coillard to his mother, " cut us to 
the heart and caused us far more pain than all the indig- 
nities we suffered from the Government. But why? 
We have sown, and sown with tears ; but what matter 
if others reap ? All must be for the glory of God." 

It has already been said that these events aroused great 
sympathy for the Mission and also for the Basutos on the 
Continent of Europe. This sympathy took a practical 
shape, and fortunately so, for the distress among the 
exiled families was very great. The Coillards felt it no 
less than others. Though they had no family of their 
own, they had adopted Joas and Samuel, " who," wrote 
Mme. Coillard to her sister, "cost us nearly as much to 
feed, clothe, and educate as white children." 

Another experience of "passing through the waters" 
shows to what straits they were reduced. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" To-day we went ... to Mr. Eeynolds' plantation. 
. . . Christina . . . had a day of rest at least, and she 
needed it ; she works with an ardour that puts me to 
shame. In returning we found the river full through 
the high tide ; the horses had almost to swim. How- 
ever, Christina summoned up all her courage, and we 
crossed without accident, to the great astonishment of 
the boatman, who was watching us . . . with all his 
family and some Kaffirs. We thus saved four or 
five shillings, which is a consideration in our present 
circumstances." 

Moreover, during the whole of this time and until her 
death in 1875, M. Coillard was remitting a considerable 
share of his small stipend to his mother, direct from Paris ; 
and nearly every letter contained in addition "a little piece 
of gold sewn into the corner, which I know the pastor 



1867] QUESTION OF MAURITIUS 161 



will change for you, dear mother." After her death, he 
educated no less than five of his French nephews and 
nieces, and had placed the sixth under tuition just before 
his death, although, of course, they received no allow- 
ances for this purpose, as they would have done had 
these been their own children, and they had no private 
means. In a letter dated January 7, 1867, they send to 
their respective mothers in Europe the whole of a small 
family legacy just received. But the crowning test had 
still to come. 

All hope of returning to Basutoland seemed extinct, 
and for some months two or three of the exiled mission- 
aries had been in correspondence with the Committee 
about mission work in the Mauritius, where there were 
(and still are) immense numbers of French-speaking 
natives and Creoles to be evangelised. The French 
Protestants of Mauritius had already organised several 
churches and pastorates, and M. Coillard was approached 
with the offer of one of these. The stipend, modest 
enough, was far beyond anything he could hope to 
receive in Basutoland, and the post offered wide oppor- 
tunities of mission work. Ever since their exile they 
had both suffered from broken health. It seemed impos- 
sible from every point of view ever to resume that life of 
perils and privations. Mme. Coillard loved her husband's 
people and was happy among them. Their souls were no 
less precious than those of the Basutos, to whom they 
were forbidden to return. He put the issue before his 
wife without comment, only asking her to think it over. 
She refused at once to entertain the thought. "When 
God sent us to the heathen in Africa," she said, "it was 
for our lifetime, and He will find a way to send us 
back, if not to the Basutos, to others. And besides, 
we have really taken a vow of poverty ; we must be 
true to it." 

12 



162 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" Thank God," he replied, "we are of the same mind, 
and since that is so, we will never discuss it again." 

Journal F. C. : — 

" May 20, 1867. 
" Preached on ' I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men to Me.' The person of the Saviour ! The 
Saviour Himself ; oh, what power, what attraction in the 
contemplation of a God expiating the sins of the world ! 
Who can resist it ? 

" June 9th. 

" Sermon from Mr. Grant. . . . His principal idea is 
that we are too severe in judging the piety of other 
people, and especially of the natives when they fall into 
sin contrary to their professions of faith. Education, 
circumstances, customs must be taken into consideration, 
even when the grace of God is working in a soul. ' The 
Grace of God can live where neither you nor I could.' " 

M. Coillard was struck with the practical talents of the 
American Missions as shown in their stations which he 
visited. "How practical these people are! How small 
I feel beside them ! " When they visited the German 
mission station of Hermannsburg, he wrote : — 

" June 22, 1867. 
"What a Sunday! At 8 a.m. we were present at the 
Lutheran Mass, if I may so call it. The altar, the 
candles, the comings and goings of the pastor, the litanies 
sung with responses, all astonished me. However, it is 
a beautiful idea that pervades all that, and one which we 
have lost sight of in our Reformed Churches, namely, 
adoration. We go to the preaching (au preche) and that 
is all." 



1867] NATHANAELS CONVERSION 163 



The foregoing was a feeling he expressed more than 
once. During his stay in Paris in 1897 he asked a friend 
of early days (Dr. M.), "Do you ever regret having left 
the Church of Kome?" " Never!" was the emphatic 
reply. " In Protestantism I found an open Bible, the 
personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
forgiveness of my sins — three things I never found in 
Eome. But," he added, "I must confess there is one 
thing in Catholicism which I miss in our [Reformation 
Churches, and that is adoration." ... "I miss it too ! " 
said M. Coillard. 

"July 24, 1867. 
"We had already been told about Makotoko's conver- 
sion, but how delightful it was to hear him relating himself 
the great things the Lord had done for his soul. I had 
left him at Leribe exercised and burdened. The ray of 
light which pierced the night of his heart [was] ' God so 
loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.' 
His joy was as great as his sorrow had been. From that 
time, no more uncertainties and changes ; his eyes, too, 
have been opened to the light : he believes he has found 
the Saviour. His humility, his piety have impressed us, 
and have deeply humbled me myself. . . . To-day before 
parting ... he prayed for ' his father and mother,' . . . 
and asked the Lord to open the way for them to come 
back to Leribe. . . . 

" July 26, 1867. 

"Yesterday received the news that the Volksraad, after 
taking cognisance of my letter of May 4th, refuses me 
authorisation to return to Leribe. A thunderbolt ! Lord, 
teach me obedience. 

"'Z waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined 
unto me and heard my cry,' said David." 



164 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



In spite of this disappointment, Makotoko's prayer was 
about to be granted, and, strange to say, he himself was 
to be at least one agent in bringing about the answer, as 
will be seen in the next chapter. 

" Pietekmaritzburg, January 3, 1868. 
" Those Wesleyans are workers indeed. The Spirit of 
God is a power [among them] . Oh, how much I have 
still to learn. Spiritual things keep unveiling themselves 
to my eyes like a succession of marvels. . . . 

" Tuesday, January 7th. 
" Wesleyanism as an organisation is not congenial to 
me, but it is a power that moves the masses. They turn 
all their material to account: nothing is lost. Among the 
Presbyterians all is stereotyped and clerical." 

When all hope of returning to Basutoland seemed 
extinct, the American missionaries with whom he had 
been working invited M. Coillard to join their staff 
officially ; but this he could not do. The Eev. S. Pixley 
(the only one who remembers these days) writes : — 

"... The first thing that especially impressed me was the quickness 
with which M. Coillard got hold of the language — in three months or 
less. As I was there one day he asked me to listen to a sermon he 
had written in Zulu, one of a series on the Prodigal Son. He asked 
if I thought that the people would understand it. I assured him that 
they would, and said to him, 'You know more of the language 
already than I do.' The people also said that they had no difficulty 
in understanding him. He also taught the school, having two ses- 
sions a day, and threw himself energetically into all the departments 
of the work as if it were his own. He impressed me as a man of fine 
education and deep spirituality, and, moreover, was always most 
polite and courteous. ... He made himself one of us." . . . 



1867] PIETERM ARITZBURG 165 



Some other recollections are kindly supplied by a life- 
long friend, Captain Robertson : — 

" We saw much of him at that time, and soon grew to esteem and 
love them [both] . I know no one whose character so resembled that 
of our Lord, and in whom the fruit of the Spirit was so evident. 
What greatly struck me was his manner towards the few Basuto 
natives that were with him ; the kindness and courtesy in his dealing 
with them was very beautiful — he was indeed a gentleman in the true 
sense of the word. After some stay in Pietermaritzburg he visited 
the American stations on the coast, and presently took temporary 
charge of the work at Ifumi. While on the coast he was seriously ill 
[August and September, 1867] , and for a time in great suffering 
[indeed, his life was despaired of]. . . . Soon after . . . they asked 
us to pay them a visit, and there we spent a very happy week. I 
observed when there that, though perfect in our eyes was the 
character of our friend when he was with us at Pietermaritz- 
burg, there was now something more beautiful still — an increase of 
spirituality in the daily life and, I think, in the expression of the face. 
I think a result of the late suffering was an evident increase of the 
' peaceable fruits of righteousness.' " 



CHAPTEK X 



MOTITO AND THE MOFFATS 
1868-1869 

Basutoland a British Protectorate — Leaving Natal — Leribe — Journey 
to Bectmanaland and Motito — The Moffat family — The Helmore 
and Price disaster — Kuruman and Lo Bengula — Eeturn to Leribe. 

AT the close of 1867 the British Government agreed 
to take over the Protectorate of Basntoland, which 
was to be governed by the Cape Colony. The Basntos 
were manifestly unable to govern it themselves, though 
they could fight for it. Many considerations had led to 
this decision, the chief one apparently being the impos- 
sibility of preserving neutrality otherwise. In spite of 
proclamations against it, two Englishmen had gone to 
Cape Colony from the Eree State and recruited a com- 
mando to pillage at large, and this exposed the British 
possessions to reprisals from the Basutos. The official 
records, however, reveal the fact that the turning-point 
of all the negotiations was none other than a diplomatic 
visit from Nathanael Makotoko to Mr. Shepstone. The 
missionary body seem to have been unaware of this, 
doubtless because M. Coillard, the only one who could 
have known about it, was just then lying dangerously 
ill at the coast, many miles away. 

This interview took place on August 19, 1867, three 

166 



1867] MR. SHEPSTONE 167 



weeks after the refusal of the Volksraad to let the 
Coillards return to Leribe (see p. 163, ante). Makotoko 
had reported himself at headquarters, and Moshesh had 
sent him back to Natal with fresh instructions. He now 
stated before the Secretary for Native Affairs that the 
Basuto chiefs had sent many entreaties by letter to Her 
Majesty's Government, but in vain, and that they had 
thought at last perhaps the spoken word might prevail 
where the written word had failed. His speech, as 
recorded, stands in striking contrast with the piteous 
and grovelling petitions hitherto sent by the chiefs, and 
proves in every sentence the reality of the change that 
had come over him, lifting his whole nature into a new 
plane. Till then, as these pages have proved, he had 
shown himself brave to rashness as a soldier and with 
arms in his hands, but, without them, merely a faithful 
but diffident messenger, easily intimidated, and beset by 
superstitious fears. On this occasion, however, he seemed 
transformed. He spoke with spirit and dignity, summed 
up the history and sufferings of the war, and declared (in 
effect) that his chiefs were still ready to fight for the last 
inch of their land and the last shred of their independence, 
but that they were unfairly handicapped by the fact that 
the Free State Government could import arms and 
ammunition to any extent, while the sale of them to 
the Basutos was forbidden. Thus the British Govern- 
ment, while professing neutrality, was in reality helping 
one side and hindering the other. In conclusion he 
said : — 

" If the British Government will not receive us and our 
country, or will not interpose to save us from destruction ; 
if it looks upon us and the people of the Orange Free 
State equally as friends and children, although erring and 
wayward, and that therefore we should be left to punish 



168 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



each other, let it not supply arms and ammunition to one 
side and withhold them from the other, but let both have 
an equal chance; and if the Basutos must perish, let 
them perish defending themselves." 

This simple, soldierly appeal had its effect. It was 
impossible to accept Nathanael's naive assumption that 
the Basutos and the Free Staters were to be regarded 
as equal opponents, or to supply arms to be used against 
white men, but the High Commissioner wrote to the 
Lieutenant-Governor of Natal (Mr. Keate, who had now 
succeeded Colonel Bisset) : "I am fully alive to the 
false position in which we are placed by treaty in respect 
to the supply of ammunition," and to the Civil Commis- 
sioner at Aliwal (September 14, 1867) : — 

" I daresay there is a good deal of truth in the report 
of Austen's messenger that the Basutos are falling to 
pieces. At the same time I very much wish them to 
hold together sufficiently and long enough to give me 
a tolerable excuse for negotiating with them if the 
Secretary of State gives me leave .... I think, there- 
fore, it would be a good thing if you could privately and 
judiciously let it ooze out to the missionaries and the 
Basuto leaders that you have very little doubt that I am 
still contemplating some such arrangement, one result of 
which would be the restoration of the missionaries." 

Indeed, judging by their letters, all the British officials 
seem to have felt that their country's reputation for 
keeping faith would be lost for ever if she stood by and 
let Moshesh, her old ally, with his people be swallowed 
up before her eyes. 

The High Commissioner's letter reached Downing 
Street at a favourable moment. Public attention, not 



1868]BASUTOLAND PROTECTORATE 169 



only in England, but in Europe, and especially in 
France, had been drawn to the Basuto troubles by the 
treatment of the French missionaries. The great 
Napoleon had made the protection of the Huguenots the 
traditional policy of his dynasty, and Napoleon III. had 
just then for Minister of State M. Guizot, who was not 
merely a Protestant but a sincere believer. Thanks to 
his representations, the Emperor had interested himself 
personally in the exile of his subjects from their field of 
labour, and intimations to that effect had doubtless not 
been lost upon the Colonial Office. Finally, a despatch 
dated January 13, 1868, informed Moshesh that the 
Queen had been graciously pleased to grant his request. 
The Basutos were offered their choice of being attached 
to the Government of Natal or to that of the Cape 
Colony. They voted for the latter, and the Proclamation 
was made on March 12, 1868. 

Moshesh and the President of the Orange Free State 
having both appealed to the High Commissioner to arbi- 
trate between them once more, he consented, and met 
Mr. Keate with Mr. Shepstone at Aliwal to decide upon 
the boundary. As a result of the war, this was pushed 
still further back, even to the Caledon Eiver, which now 
became the frontier as it is to-day. The Free State 
secured the rich cornlands still called the Conquered 
Territory, which the Basutos had to evacuate ; the latter 
retained their independence and their mountains; the 
Cape Colony undertook the trouble and expense of 
administration till order should be restored and revenue 
raised. As soon as possible the missionaries were rein- 
stated in all the stations which fell within the Basuto 
border. Those on the west of the Caledon had to be 
given up, but compensation was granted for them instead 
of their being held up to ransom as before.* 

:,: The Rev. P. Germond, senior French missionary in Basutoland, 



170 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



However, this was not accomplished all at once, but 
only after protracted negotiations with the Boers. 

During the time of their sojourn in Natal the Coillards 
were in constant intercourse with their friend, Mr. 
Shepstone, as well as with the Lieutenant-Governor, 
who discussed affairs with them and with Mr. Daumas. 
Though Basutoland had now become a British protec- 
torate, so long as the Leribe district under Molapo still 

writes that this statement as it stands is not strictly correct. The 
facts are as follows (in his own words) : — 

"The Government of the Orange Free State never gave any 
compensation to the missionaries for their personal losses during the 
war and in consequence of their exile. 

" Neither did it grant any to the Paris Missionary Society for the 
ruin of its work on the stations of Bethulie, Beersheba, Hebron, 
Poortje, Mekuatling, and Mabolela. 

"What it granted was that a certain extension of ground should be 
added to the mission buildings, so that these could find a purchaser. 

"It was, in point of fact, impossible to continue the work in the 
new circumstances, as the natives had all received orders to quit the 
Conquered Territory now annexed to the Orange Free State, unless 
they took service with the farmers. 

" The above-mentioned sale of the stations was more or less profit- 
able to the Society according to the value of the land, . . . plantations 
and . . . buildings. In a general way it may be said that the Society 
(as such) recovered what it had laid out, but that the missionaries, 
who had worked so hard with their hands, lost everything for their 
trouble. 

"The Orange Free State cannot talk of compensations granted. 
It could not have done less than it did." 

[This is evident, as the land added to the stations was simply 
confiscated from the natives who were driven off it. — Ed.] 

" Doubtless it could have confiscated the missionary establishments. 
From the moment that a sense of justice withheld it from doing this, 
it gave, with the least expenditure possible, an appearance of liberality 
[to the transaction] ..." 

So far M. Germond. It may be added that the " sense of justice" 
of which he speaks only awoke under the strongest pressure from the 
High Commissioner, Sir Philip Wodehouse, whom they called in as 
arbitrator. 



1868] THE FRENCH EMPEROR 171 



formed a part of the Orange Free State, it was impossible 
for them to resume mission work there except in defiance 
of the Volksraad. Consequently Mr. Keate and Mr. 
Shepstone strongly counselled delay in returning to 
Leribe, and M. Coillard did not feel free to force matters, 
believing that by prayer and patience all obstacles would 
be overcome in time without arousing ill-feeling. Mean- 
while they were asked to go to Motito, the original station 
of the French Mission, founded in Bechuanaland by 
MM. Holland and Lemue in 1831 (see p. 43). The post 
had become vacant through tragic circumstances. In 
1866 the missionary, M. Fredoux, had been murdered 
by a drunken English trader, who placed a barrel of 
165 lbs. of gunpowder under the waggon on which Mr. 
Fredoux was sitting, and blew himself and his victim 
up with it, as well as several natives, before the onlookers 
at some little distance could interfere. The station was 
a short distance from Dr. Moffat's place at Kuruman. 
To reach it they had to make a waggon journey of two 
and a half months (July 4th to September 19th) through 
the Orange Free State and Transvaal and beyond into 
the Kalahari desert. First they felt they must visit their 
dear Leribe, and so they risked the expedition when they 
reached Harry smith. 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

" Thursday, January 30, 1868. 
" Yesterday we received the great news that the British 
Government is going to take possession of Basutoland, 
which opens the prospect for us to return to our stations. 
This news reached us from Aliwal North. From Paris 
M. Casalis writes that he has had an interview with the 
Emperor and then with the English Colonial Secretary, 
and that he was favourably listened to. 



172 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



F. C. to Kev. J. Smith: — 

"Pietermaritzburg, May, 1868. 
" The Colonial papers will tell you more than I know 
myself about Basuto and Free State affairs. . . . [M. 
Casalis] says that the Committee of the Evangelical 
Alliance have decided to send a deputation to Lord 
Buckingham (sic) to represent our case. . . . They are 
in possession of information from Paris on the subject. 
M. Casalis tells us also that the memorial which was got 
up here in Natal has been submitted to the Emperor and 
sent to those in authority.* 

Journal F. C. :— 

" Bethlehem, Thursday, July 23rd. 
"We went this morning, after a night of agitation and 
sorrow, to see the Justice of the Peace. I decided to 
give him the opportunity of arresting me. We were 
cordially received. What was not my astonishment to 
hear him offering me his cart and his horses to go and 
visit Mr. Naude. ' I would rather,' I said, ' go and 
visit my flock.' ' Well,' he said, 'they are at your 
service.' What joy! 

" Friday, July Mih. 
" Left Bethlehem for Leribe. . . . Travelled with great 
anxiety; some cavalry we saw at a distance and who 
seemed to be watching us made us uneasy : we learnt 
later on that they were Basutos going hunting. Mako- 
toko seemed anxious and preceded us without speaking. 
Molapo received us ungraciously. He had us brought to 
our own dining-room and had our former bedroom cleared 
out. 

* See also Basutoland Becords, vol. iii. p. 834. Letter from the 
Duke of Buckingham re petition to the Emperor of the French. 



1868] BAPTISM OF NATHAN AEL 173 



" Saturday, 25th. 
"From early morning our house was besieged by our 
people. Molapo went away to his old village. I con- 
ducted morning prayer. Towards 11 a.m. an interesting 
meeting at the church. Elia gave us . . . the history of 
the Church and of the awakening since our departure. 
Kemuel informed us of the satisfactory state of the 
Church members. Johanne spoke of the candidates, 
the school pupils, &c. All satisfactory. In the after- 
noon a no less interesting meeting of the candidates. 
Elia, Johanne, Kemuel introduced them to us. Very 
full day. Molapo took offence at the Christians having 
come to meet us at Harrysmith ; he declares that 
it is not him we have come to visit. Disagreeable 
messages. . . . 

"Monday, 27th. 

"Baptized yesterday Nathanael Makotoko [and five 
others] . The attention was great. Audience about four 
hundred. Afternoon preached on Heb. xii. 2, ' Looking 
unto Jesus.' Administered the Lord's Supper to forty 
persons. Closed the services at sunset. 

''Monday. — Early in the morning several wives of 
Molapo's and other persons converted came to speak 
to me . . . till midday. Marriage of Bachel and 
Solomon in presence of a large congregation. Then 
another conference with the awakened. Burial of Joshua's 
child, large congregation. Took leave of the men Church 
members, exhorted eleven converted girls ; most of them 
have lived in our house — all have been to our school. 
Nearly as many young men, also converted, to whom I 
could not cease speaking ; we were not free till late into 
the night. We did not feel tired, but profoundly edified 
and happy. The work of God is greater and more 
beautiful than we had thought. 



174 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" Tuesday, July 28, 1868. 
" Left Leribe. Early in the morning farewell meeting 
with the people. . . . We could scarcely tear ourselves 
away from our poor people. . . . [Christina] was tired, 
for at Leribe" we slept on the ground, having not even 
the ghost of a mattress. How sad to think we are 
going away from such a beautiful work ! But the Lord 
knows why. 

Journey to Motito. 

"Kronstadt, Monday, August 10, 1868. 
. . Visited the magistrate, who broke into explana- 
tions and excuses about the conduct of the Government 
towards us, and assured me that no one believes the 
slanders circulated about me. . . . 

"August 13, 1868. 
" Spent last night in an immense plain full of gnus and 
antelopes and gazelles, but no water. Towards midnight 
we were awakened by the howling of leopards, who were 
roaming round the waggon the whole night, and kept us 
in a continual state of alarm. The guns, newly washed, 
were not dry. No one closed an eye till daybreak. The 
yelping of jackals and the roaring of gnus seemed 
designed to prevent our forgetting our danger. 

" Friday. 

" Outspanned to pass the night near a slope where 
hundreds of zebras went by, but no water ; cold and 
violent wind, threatening weather. To-day cross the 
Vaal. . . . 

" Potchefstroom, Monday, August 11th. 
" Spent the evening with Mr. and Mrs. E. The state 
of the country is dreadful. There is nothing but paper 



1868] STATE OF THE TRANSVAAL 175 



money, and the traders have so little confidence in this 
that they would not accept it at first. It is said that 
one day the President sent ^1 in paper to buy coffee at a 
shop, and they offered him one pound of coffee. This 
state of things could not go on, and the Volksraad made 
a law which obliged them to accept paper money and 
forbade them on pain of fine to refuse their goods. 
Hence the shops are almost empty. If you bring paper, 
the article you ask for is not in the shop ; but if you have 
cash, then they bring you into a private part where you 
can get all you want. In consequence there is great 
misery. Coffee costs 5s., maize 25s. to 30s. ; for money, 
hard geld, I got it for 10s. The moment we arrived 
people came from all parts to ask if we had anything to 
sell, hoping we had coffee and other necessities of life. 
. . . M. Ludorf tells abominable things about the treat- 
ment of the natives by the Boers. It is enough to make 
one's hair stand on end. How can one believe that men 
calling themselves Christians, who burn the natives, muti- 
late them like animals, and reduce them to slavery, will not 
be visited by the judgments of God ? I saw some pieces 
of quartz which come from the goldfields, a weight of 
750 lbs. It is said they contain a great deal of gold, 
though we cannot see much. Great excitement in the 
town. . . . What I rejoice over in thinking of these 
goldmines is that they will be a means God will make 
use of to open the interior of Africa and make the Gospel 
penetrate there. 

" Tuesday, August 25th. 
"Left Potchefstroom. . . . Yesterday, on returning from 
M. Z.'s farm, visited Jan Kok, who drove Major Warden 
out of the Free State and made war on Sir Harry Smith. 
He boasts of the exploits of Boomplaatz. He is a frank 
and amiable man. 



176 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



"Friday, August 28th. 
"Beach Hartebeest Fontein. A charming place where 
about thirty houses and huts of dry earth are thrown 
pell-mell in the greatest confusion in front of the most 
beautiful gardens we have seen in this country. ... It 
consists of two or three families inter-married, who live 
there under the patriarchal government of an Elder. I 
was led to this important personage, who received me 
with a full sense of his high dignity. The next day he 
came to see us at the waggon, escorted us to his house 
and to visit the principal inhabitants of the place; 
showed us his magnificent gardens, treated us with 
consideration, and offered us oranges at five shillings the 
hundred. 

"Saturday, 29th. 
"Left Hartebeest Fontein towards midday. Marched 
till sunset without finding water. Outspanned in a 
dell close to a grove of mimosas, and all set to work to 
look for water. I returned exhausted. Johanne had 
found water a long way off — where Azor and Joas went 
to fetch it on Sunday morning — and a little moisture in a 
hole which we dug. ... It was a sight to see a little 
troop of oxen grazing near precipitate themselves on 
this hole, where a man could hardly have put his head, 
rearing, pushing with their horns, then kneeling down, 
breathing and swallowing the little moisture that 
remained — the rest on one side mournfully bellowing. 

" Wednesday [September], 2nd. 
' Unspanned at 2 a.m. so as to arrive at Ostenhuis' farm, 
where there is the first and the last water before reaching 
Mosheue's. . . . There found a little village of Batlapings, 
and were beset with their begging. Poor Christina half 
dead with cold and fatigue. . . . 



1868] DR. MOFFAT 



177 



" September \\.th. 
" Left Mamusa. The old Mosheue and Andreas came 
to ask me to be their missionary . . . the former is a 
soul ripe for heaven, and everything indicates that he is 
not long for this world." 

Old Mosheue was one of Dr. Moffat's earliest converts ; 
his name had been familiar to both M. and Mme. Coillard 
from childhood. 

" Saturday, 19 th. 
" Travelled all last night; arrived about 5 a.m. at Motito, 
really exhausted with fatigue. Bought seventeen ostrich 
eggs for a little coffee, &c, from some Griquas. . . . All 
the station buildings are falling into ruins. . . . We 
occupy two little rooms at the end of the house, which 
are only seven feet wide." 

Among the Bechuanas and the wild Korannas they had 
most interesting experiences, which prepared them for 
their still greater journey of a few years later ; but space 
forbids their record here. Their visits to the Moffat 
family at Kuruman must be mentioned, however, since 
what they learnt there had an important bearing upon 
the future. 

F. C. to his Mother : — 

"Motito, 1868. 
". . . We are very anxious about you. I do hope it is 
not too hard a winter. At your age, how you must feel 
the cold. Do you remember the long evenings when I 
used to read you Mr. Moffat's book about Africa while 
you stripped the hemp ? Did we ever think then that I 
should come to Africa, and that I should see Mr. Moffat 
and his station, Kuruman? The Lord's ways are won* 

13 



178 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



derful. We think of starting the day after to-morrow to 
visit Dr. Moffat : it is only two days by waggon. 

" October 15th. 
" Left for Kuruman with Mrs. Fredoux. Burning sun. 
I felt ill. Enchanted to make the acquaintance of John 
Moffat. Mrs. Moffat is uprightness itself and full of 
feeling. She is a person for whom we have conceived 
the greatest affection. Yesterday evening Mr. and Mrs. 
Moffat, the parents, came to see us, and we spoke much 
of Basutoland, our trials, &c. I was very glad to see 
once more this missionary patriarch. 

"Monday, 19th. 

" A troop of people arrived from Port Elizabeth on the 
way to the gold-mines of Mosilikatse. 

" Kuruman, like Motito, is an oasis in the dreary desert, 
but still more beautiful. The gardens . . . are in perfect 
order. Moreover everything breathes of order here : the 
buildings and garden walls are well kept up. 

" What strikes one in Mr. and Mrs. Moffat is the force 
and energy of their character. They evidently have very 
strong will-power, and would not readily brook opposition. 
Whatever Mr. Moffat sets before him he does at once. I 
brought him some [papers] from Mosheue to be printed ; 
the same day I received a packet of three hundred. That 
is what explains his influence. He busies himself very 
much with translations ; his muse is very fertile. . . . 
But his disposition is cheerful and very loveable, and I 
can easily understand his popularity in England. . . . 
The school directed by Miss Moffat is a model. I have 
never seen anything like it anywhere. The infant school 
is apart. This young girl's heart is in the work, and it 
really does one good to see her so full of spirit and 
courage. 



1868] HELMORE AND PRICE 179 



" A good prayer-meeting in English at Mr. Moffat's, at 
which several traders were present. Mr. and Mrs. J. S. 
Moffat have belonged to the mission at Mosilikatse's, 
where they suffered terribly. Our sufferings are nothing 
by comparison with theirs. They have been a year at 
Kuruman. We have great sympathy with each other. 
"We both think that missionary societies are not scrip- 
tural, and are often an obstacle to the work. Each 
Church ought to have its own missionary, or, at any 
rate, the missionary ought to depend directly from the 
Churches. We do not agree equally well about the 
orthography to be adopted for the native languages. 
J. M. is as radical as I am conservative." 

This was true in more senses than one, and to the end 
of their friendship, which closed only with M. Coillard's 
death. 

"Monday. 

" We made friends with Mr. Price and spent all the 
afternoon together. Mr. Price told us his terrible 
experiences among the Makololo. . . . Mrs. Price [his 
second wife] is a Miss Moffat." 

This entry refers to the Helmore and Price expedition 
to the Zambesi in 1859, the real forerunner of M. Coil- 
lard's later expedition, of which he little dreamt at this 
time. When Livingstone returned to England after his 
journeys on the Zambesi (1851 to 1855) and his discovery 
of the Victoria Falls, he was loud in praise of Sebitoane, 
the Basuto (Makololo) chief he had found reigning there 
(see p. 42 ante) — the wise and benevolent ruler of a 
most interesting people who, he said, ought to be evan- 
gelised without delay. Great enthusiasm was aroused 
and large sums collected to fit out a missionary expe- 



180 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



dition, which started in 1859 for the Zambesi, traversed 
the Thirst country, and reached the South Bank after a 
terrible journey, in charge of Messrs. Helmore and Price, 
with their wives and children. The chief Sebitoane had 
died during Livingstone's visit ; his son, Sekeletu, who 
had promised to receive them, proved to be a traitor. 
The expedition was plundered ; some thought poisoned. 
At any rate, all died except Mr. Price and two of the 
Helmore children, who escaped with him; and after 
fearful sufferings they were met and rescued by the Eev. 
John Mackenzie, a fellow-member of the expedition, who 
had been delayed on the way to join them — providentially, 
as it proved. 

When Livingstone returned to the Zambesi and 
inquired into the circumstances, he was indignant. 
" You have killed and plundered the servants of God," 
he said, " whom you invited into your country ; and 
the judgments of God will fall on you." True enough 
in 1866, their vassals, the Barotsi of the Upper 
Zambesi, rebelled against the Makololo, and massacred 
them all. A few who fled to Lake Ngami were 
betrayed by the chief, who received them, and they 
too perished miserably. Dr. Livingstone's prophecy is 
still remembered and quoted by the Barotsi whenever 
the Makololo are mentioned. 

Joubnal F. C. : — 

" Saturday, December Vdth. 
" I was just preparing for to-morrow, when in the 
evening arrived the families Mackenzie and Sykes, the 
first a missionary from Bamangwato [Khama's tribe], 
the second from Mosilikatse, who has just died. 

"Monday, December 21, 1868. 
" Spent the whole morning with these gentlemen 



1868] PRAISEWORDS 181 



discussing different subjects connected with mission 
work, and heard details from them. Mosilikatse was 
a tyrant. Often at the preaching, if he heard any- 
thing he did not like, he would [take snuff and] begin 
to sneeze with all his force, and at once everybody 
rose to applaud, Yeko n'Kosi [Great King], with a 
thousand epithets, each more flattering than the 
last." 

The allusion here is to the African tradition of praise- 
words, which are handed on in lyrical forms by which, 
in the absence of written records heroes hope to be 
remembered "to all generations." 

M. Coillard often referred to this behaviour of 
Mosilikatse's. Like King Saul, he could not endure to 
hear greater praisewords than his own. It was when the 
preacher dwelt upon the Royal glories of our Saviour, 
Prince of the Kings of the Earth, that he would thus 
give the signal to his chiefs to rise and drown the praises 
of Christ by his own ; just as in their national assemblies. 
These always opened by a hymn of praise to himself, 
chanted by all present like a cathedral chorus, and 
followed by the presentation of cattle as offerings to 
himself. It gave a terrible actuality to the apostolic scene 
in Acts iv. : " The kings of the earth stood up, and their 
rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and 
against His Christ, ... of a truth against Thy Holy 
Child Jesus." 

It was one more challenge in the age-long battle. 
But it was not in the power of any heathen chief 
to silence that song which has risen unceasingly to God 
since David first set singers on Mount Zion, not to 
glorify himself like the minstrels of the heathen kings 
around, but to praise the Maker of earth and heaven, 
whose sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness, and whose 



182 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



lovingkindness is over all His works. Mosilikatse's 
throne of iniquity has been swept away and his praise- 
words are heard no longer, while in the ancient capital 
hundreds of Christian Matabele adore that same Jesus 
whose messengers he had rejected. On August 23, 1903, 
M. Coillard stood in such a native assembly at Bula- 
wayo, and heard them singing the Te Deum and those 
very Psalms which David wrote for an everlasting 
memorial. 

" Thy Kingdom is a Kingdom of all ages, and Thy 
dominion throughout all generations." 

Already in 1868 the movement had begun that was 
to end in the overthrow of the Matabele dynasty. 

JouENAii F. C. : — 

"December 21, 1868. 
" Mr. Sykes has come to seek for Kuruman, the son 
whom Mosilikatse had chosen as heir to the throne. 
No one knows . . . what has become of him." 

This Kuruman (so named in compliment to Dr. 
Moffat) was supposed to have been killed in a massacre 
of all the royal children, ordered by their own father, 
because of a conspiracy to place one of them on the 
throne in his stead. 

The induna charged with this duty hid Lo Bengula 
(the son of an inferior wife) in the shield house, but 
Kuruman was never seen again. However, the proofs 
of his death were never forthcoming either, hence 
Lo Bengula, who succeeded to his father in 1870, lived 
always in terror of being deposed by his brother. This 
kept him under the power of the headmen, who, 
whenever he wished to act on his better impulses 
contrary to their bloodthirsty and treacherous devices, 



1869] IN THE KALAHARI 183 



at once declared they knew where Kuruman was and 
would produce him if Lo Bengula did not fall in with 
their wishes. If he had not been coerced in this way, 
he would never have treated the Coillards as he after- 
wards did, and probably would never have lost his 
throne in defying the British Government. 

The Ketuen to Leribe. 

At the beginning of 1869 the way opened for M. 
and Mme. Coillard to return to their own station, 
so they left Motito (January 11th) and made a farewell 
tour round the four distant out-stations. The weather 
was intensely hot, and they suffered very much from 
the want of water, and also of food. Their provisions 
were exhausted ; their waggon and clothes worn out. 
But the work had become a good deal disorganised 
since M. Fredoux's death, and they felt they must 
leave everything they had undertaken in good order, 
buildings in repair, congregations disciplined and 
confirmed, and so they spent about two months in 
pastoral visitation. A waggon journey is a delightful 
holiday to those who can travel regardless of expense. 
It is altogether a different thing for people with exhausted 
health and exhausted stores in a foodless and waterless 
wilderness like the Kalahari. In those days tinned 
meat was not the staple diet of South Africa, and 
travellers lived on game, biltong (strips of flesh dried in 
the sun), and "biscuit," thin cakes of coarse dough 
sugared to preserve them. They were usually full of 
weevils, and the sweet taste soon disgusted those who 
for weeks together had nothing else to eat. In conse- 
quence of this bad food and water Mrs. Coillard fell ill of 
a painful and dangerous complaint, and when after some 
weeks she recovered, it was her husband's turn. 



184 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Journal F. C. :— 

" Morokoeng, February 3, 1869. 
"Poor Christina was suffering very much. . . . The 
waggon and tent were like ovens and swarming with 
flies stinging like bees. 

" Ga-Boloko, February lUh. 
" Eumours of war had already reached us on the road ; 
they were confirmed at Nyessa. The Boers, it was said, 
had declared war at Mahura. We spent the night in 
this desert with no water but what we brought with 
us. . . . Even before sunset jackals were howling with 
hyenas ... we expected the visit of a lion . . . but 
nothing troubled our sleep. . . . The next morning 
we set off again not knowing where we should spend 
Sunday. We soon saw the lake a long way off. The 
temptation was too great. We turned our steps thither. 
But what a long way off ! We did not have to regret it. 
Our provisions were almost done — an anxious thing for 
us with so many mouths to feed. I had asked with 
all my heart at our family worship that God would ' give 
us this day our daily bread.' Scarcely had we arrived 
here (Ga-Boloko) than some young men . . . brought us 
quarters of buffalo which we bought for some handker- 
chiefs and a knife. 

F. C. to his Mother: — 

"Leribe, June 15, 1869. 
" I had meant to write you a long letter, and tell you 
in detail all about our journey. But I was very ill, and 
then we have been travelling again, and this is why my 
letter was never finished. It was at Mamusa that I fell 
ill, in consequence of the extreme heat and fatigue. My 
poor wife, who had scarcely recovered herself, had a 



-Ph. Mrs. Macaulay,] [Seshelee. 

THE CEREMONIOUS GREETING OF TWO WOMEN. UPPER ZAMBESI. 

[To face p. 184. 



1869] THE KORANNAS 185 



time of terrible anxiety. Our people themselves were 
ill and could not help us much. But the Korannas, 
good people, won our hearts by their devotion. They 
live in huts covered with mats and surrounded by a little 
wall, and when the Christians want to pray and be alone 
they go on to the veld under some solitary tree, and 
there pour out their hearts before God. In their 
language, ' to go under the trees ' means to go and 
pray, and that is what they do generally three times 
a day. How touching it was to see old Mosheue, the 
chief, come in weeping to comfort Christina, telling her 
that God would not fail to raise me up, because, since 
I had fallen sick, all the Christians had been earnestly 
frequenting their trees.* 1 We were orphans,' he said ; 
' we were perishing : how should God deprive us of the 
bosom that feeds us ? ' And indeed the Lord did raise 
me up, and very quickly, thanks and glory to Him. All 
the time we were at Mamusa the Christian Korannas 
lavished kindness upon us. They did all they could to 
keep us among them, but we owed our first duty to our 
flock at Leribe. Our Basutos wrote to us to hasten our 
return, for all political matters were settled. So we left 
the Korannas amid tears and prayers. Several accom- 
panied us in waggons and on horseback for several days ; 
but at last we had to part. The Boers did not molest 
us ; on the contrary, most of them were very obliging. 
Only one, on hearing I was a missionary, refused to let 
me out-span on his farm. 

" You can guess the joy of our Basutos when we arrived. 
But Molapo is still under the yoke of the Free State, and 
when we crossed the Caledon, close to the station, the 
Magistrate (i.e., that of the O.F.S., whom this Govern- 

* A casual observer might have supposed this was tree- worship, 
but it was only to be alone, just as the Basutos, having no trees, 
seek a retreat among the rocks. 



186 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



ment has placed there) sent us a letter forbidding ns to 
return to our home. I replied that I was a traveller, 
that I had come to visit my church, and that in this 
capacity no one had a right to stop me. He made no 
further difficulty, referred the matter to the authorities, 
and we went straight to our house, and now we have 
been here a month ! Our house is very dilapidated and 
very dirty, for Molapo has occupied it with his wives : 
all the walls are shiny with grease and ochre. Moreover, 
we feel very sad to think we cannot call it our own home. 
But we are thankful to have a roof over our heads, and 
to see once more this spot, where we have enjoyed and 
suffered so much. What gives us great pleasure is that 
the work prospers. 

" The father of our little Samuel, Nathanael Makotoko, 
almost puts us to shame by the ardour of his piety. He 
never loses a chance of speaking to others of his Saviour, 
and he is so happy, so bright. He comes nearly every 
day to see us, stays all day, and puts his hand to every 
kind of work. . . . 

<£ It is now winter and we feel the cold very much in our 
empty house after the heat of the interior. Our baggage 
is still in Natal : we have nothing with us but travelling 
things. The cold weather does me a great deal of good, 
and I am feeling stronger already. We found our people 
here terribly bare. You know the Boers took or burnt 
all their clothes in the war. 

" Christina has had to give up several of her dresses, and 
my generosity has necessarily experienced the same trial." 

Leribe was reached May 9, 1869. They were obliged 
to accept the footing of visitors, in order not to embarrass 
the authorities of the Cape and Orange Free State, who 
were negotiating for Molapo's return to his tribal alle- 
giance. 



CHAPTER XI 
BASUTOLAND 



1869-1875 



Basutoland once more — Church-building — Conversion and Death of 
Moshesh — The Franco-Prussian War — Damaris and Bahab — 
Langalibalele — A Flourishing Work. 

A S already mentioned, the war had caused a great 



XJL Revival among the Basutos, and the missionaries 
were welcomed back to their stations by far larger con- 
gregations than those they had left. At Mori j a alone, 
Philemone, the schoolmaster, brought 100 converts to 
the missionary, and there were 436 candidates for 
admission to the church, at other stations in pro- 
portion. They immediately began to consolidate this 
work. Churches and schools were rebuilt : out-stations 
planted, and literature circulated. All these things had 
been begun before the war; there were already 2,000 
communicants, and 25 stations, counting annexes, but 
then the pastors had to do everything themselves. 
Now they were helped by a willing people, and the 
work spread rapidly. This period was the one in which 
the Gospel struck deep roots among the people them- 
selves, the chiefs standing aloof, whereas during the 
early period it was the chiefs who encouraged and 
profited by the introduction of Christianity. 




187 



188 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Molapo still adhered to the Orange Free State. This 
made the position of the Coillards very uncertain at first, 
especially as his conduct was going from bad to worse. 
His treachery and the injury he had done to his mis- 
sionary hardened his own heart. " The subject of 
apostasy," as M. Coillard has said, in speaking of this 
chief, "is an awful and mysterious one." Certainly 
it had the effect of blinding him to his own material 
interests all the time that he thought he was promoting 
them by persecuting the Christians. The latter were the 
most loyal and obedient as well as the most industrious 
of his subjects, yet his one object was to banish them 
from his neighbourhood and surround himself with the 
heathen, for whom he organised festivals and orgies. 
First he tried to get the Mission station removed once 
more (this time to Thlotsi, some miles away, the present 
site of the Magistracy), so that he might continue to 
enjoy the house and gardens and fields it had taken the 
Coillards five years to build and lay out. (It must be 
borne in mind that a missionary's garden was not a 
luxury; it was what he chiefly lived upon.) Before 
he could carry out this scheme, the British Government 
had taken over the Leribe district also ; and the interests 
of the Mission were protected. Defeated in this, he next 
began a campaign of petty persecution against all the 
Christians, but especially against his cousin, Nathanael 
Makotoko. Though unable to do without the services 
of so loyal and capable a public servant, he was jealous 
of him, as Saul was of David, and sought in every way 
to discredit him. 

Once installed, next to evangelisation, M. Coillard's 
chief anxiety was to build the church. The congregation 
had grown far too large to meet in a dwelling-house, even 
for the Holy Communion ; and he himself was no longer 
strong enough for open-air preaching as a regular thing. 



1870] CHURCH BUILDING 



189 



In short, without a church, the work could not be 
properly carried on. Building was necessarily expensive. 
Owing to the lack of fuel, it is difficult to burn bricks in 
Basutoland. Stone abounds, but requires hewing and 
shaping. All initial difficulties, however, were overcome : 
the Society sanctioned the effort ; the chief and people 
promised their help, a builder was engaged, and the work 
enthusiastically begun. 

F. C. to his Mother : — 

"Leribe, January 9, 1870. 
" It is a terrible affair to build in this country, I assure 
you ; but it is still more terrible to have to preach in the 
open-air Sunday after Sunday, in good and bad weather. 
Now we are in the midst of summer and the sun is like 
fire. I use ... a cotton umbrella lined with green, or 
keep my big hat on my head. My congregation hides 
itself under mats, but I can still see their big, white eyes 
fixed on me, and that makes me forget all the rest. 

F. C. to the Kev. J. Smith : — 

"February 2&th — . . . . By and by it will all be over: 
the year shall not pass without my having a place to 
preach and worship in ; and if God spares me and gives 
me health and strength the material work shall be pushed 
on vigorously, and then, oh then, that will be the true 
beginning of my missionary life ! Ardently do I look to 
that time to come ! " . . . 

However, that time was never to arrive : as long as he 
lived. The raising of funds for this church-building 
was a difficulty even before the Franco-Prussian War 
broke out. But before this storm burst upon them, two 
other important events had taken place, namely, the 
death of the old chief Moshesh, and, a month later, the 



190 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



acceptance of British protection by his son Molapo, when 
Letsie, the heir, became paramount. Thus the Basuto 
nation was again united under one head. 

Moshesh died on March 12, 1870. He was not a very- 
old man, but his heart was broken by the disasters and 
humiliations of the war.* 

F. Coillaed to thb Kev. J. Smith (Natal) : — 

"February 24, 1870. 

" I think I told you already, Moshesh is converted. What 
a joy through the tribe and missionaries ! I think M. 
Jousse thinks of baptizing him soon. Molapo got so 
excited at such news, he ran to Thaba Bossio and tried all 
he could, no doubt, to stop the good work of the Spirit 
of God in his father's soul. On his return he has had 
great heathen dances and practices, circumcision, &c. 
He seems mad. 

" March 6, 1870. — We are about to meet at Thaba 
Bossio on the 12th instant, and on the 20th the old 
chief Moshesh is to be baptized. 

"Thaba Bossio, Thursday. 
"I was startled on arriving to learn the death of M. 
Lemue. He died on Friday [March 12], at 9 o'clock, the 
same day and hour as Moshesh ! " 

The conversion of Moshesh has often been doubted and 
denied, but not by those who were acquainted with all 
the circumstances. It has been said that he was sur- 
rounded to the end by witch-doctors and plied with their 
arts. This is very likely, as he was helpless in the hands 
of his heathen relatives ; but he was also surrounded 
by many Christians, both native and European, whose 

* " I allowed the Boers to settle on my land. I thought I was doing 
them a kindness. How have they requited me ? They have taken 
my country and have broken my heart." — Letter of Moshesh to Sir 
George Grey. 



1870] CONVERSION OF MOSHESH 191 



accounts of the testimony he gave during the last 
months of his life would fill many pages. Those who 
had most to do with it were M. Jousse (now dead) and 
M. and Mme. Mabille, of whom the latter is still happily 
amongst us, and who this year showed her records to the 
present writer. They corroborate those of M. Jousse. 

It was about four months before the end that he gave 
tokens of a real spiritual change. The missionaries had 
almost ceased to hope for this. He had long known all 
that an outsider can know of Christianity, but he had no 
illusions on the subject, nor had they. He was well 
aware that the one thing needful he did not possess nor 
even desire. More than a year before his death he was 
visited by M. and Mme. Mabille. The latter, who was 
the daughter of M. Casalis, had known him from her 
childhood, and he was very much attached to her. As 
they were leaving they spoke very seriously to him about 
rejecting the Light as he was doing, and he asked them 
to give him a prayer to use. Fearing that he would treat 
a written one as a charm, Mme. Mabille said, "If I tell 
you a very short one, you can remember it without 
writing — God be merciful to me, a sinner" He replied 
very angrily, " Little girl, who told you I was a sinner? 
I shall get to heaven as well as you." 

As they said they hoped he would indeed, but that 
could only be as a sinner saved by Christ, he seemed 
softened and begged them to pray for him. Months 
passed by ; all could see that he had not many more to 
live, and earnest prayer was made both in South Africa 
and Europe that Moshesh might not pass away still a 
stranger to Christ. One day towards the close of 1869, 
M. Jousse came to see him, and he begged him to read 
the Bible. The passage chosen was the 14th of John. 
It had always been a favourite with the old chief, who 
when he came to the sixth verse repeated it after him ; 



192 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." " Son 
of Mokachane," said M. Jousse, " a throne is prepared 
for you in heaven ; believe in Jesus the Saviour of the 
world, and you will be there." 

" It was just as if he heard the message of salvation 
for the first time. A heaven opened to the sinner, and a 
Saviour who presents it to us — these were the two ideas 
he grasped." After the missionary left he had this 
passage read to him again, and reproached the Christians 
round him with having concealed the Way of Salvation 
from him, though he had heard it hundreds of times. In 
the middle of the same night he sent some of them 
to M. Jousse to say, " Moshesh declares himself a 
Christian." 

M. Jousse at once came, and the next day sent to 
four other missionaries, who all visited him and were 
astounded at the reality of the change they witnessed. 
The remarkable thing was his contrition, notwithstanding 
M. Jousse had not on that occasion said a word to him 
about repentance. To the very end he seemed deeply 
concerned about his own sinfulness, though previously, 
as we have seen, he had indignantly denied it. He 
desired them to send word of his conversion to their 
committee in Paris ; and of his own accord he sent to 
inform the Governor of the Cape, and the leading chiefs. 
He summoned each of his sons to his bedside to hear his 
testimony. This was at the end of January, 1870. 

He also sent for the prophetess Mantsupha, the same 
who, in 1865, had declared the road to heaven was a broad 
road (see p. 137), and who since then had herself become a 
Christian. Taking both her hands he said, " My sister, 
my sister, we both come from very far off, but now we 
must both walk in the narrow way." 

He asked to see the Mabilles' baby, and, inquiring its 
age, he was told " three months." " Then," he replied, 



1870] DEATH OF MOSHESH 193 



"he is my thaha (contemporary). Three months ago I 
began to be a man," referring to the time of his con- 
version. But what he kept reiterating was, "Jesus has 
gone to prepare a place for us." His last message to the 
Mabilles he t atrusted to three separate persons, so that 
they should not fail to receive it. " You showed me 
the Way, and I am going to Jesus." The last time he 
saw them he had said, " It is peace, a good peace." 

The baptism of such a chief as Moshesh could not be 
done in a corner. The missionaries would unquestionably 
have been accused of taking advantage of his weakness. 
He himself wished it to be public, that he might declare 
himself before all his people, and also (the crucial test) 
publicly put away the wives he had taken since the 
missionaries came into the country. " I knew very well 
I was doing wrong then" he said. " Those I had before 
I regard as my legitimate wives." Already, the day after 
he had declared himself to M. Jousse, he had had the 
formal papers of release made out for them, but his sons, 
to whom each one represented so many head of cattle, 
opposed vehemently all his efforts to make suitable pro- 
vision for them, and the complications thus arising were 
the real reason of the delay in his baptism. The date 
was fixed for the 20th of March, and on the night of the 
12th he died, rather suddenly, saying to his attendant, 
" Lift me up, that I may fly away." 

His was not a joyful or triumphant deathbed — he felt 
too deeply how long he had gone on sinning against the 
light ; but his love for the Saviour was touching. He 
confessed Him to every one far and wide, and if the 
privilege of doing so in baptism was denied him this 
was not his fault. " If thou shalt confess with thy 
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart 
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be 
saved." 

14 



194 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



The death of Moshesh was followed by the reunion of 
his divided country under Letsie. 

Jotjknal : — 

" Leribe, April 11, 1870. 

" M. Bowker arrived this morning to take Molapo over 
from the hands of the Free State under British protec- 
tion. I went to see him, and missed him. Molapo 
haughty as ever. 

" We began the church. A Boer, Mr. Breuer (?), rolled 
stones, and is going to return to-morrow. 

" Molapo's official reception by the English Government. 
A day of emotion for us. Oh ! how good God is. 

" April 24, 1870. 
" These words fell like balm on my heart : ' The hands 
of Zerubbabel have founded this house ; his hands shall 
finish it.' And how, after all that, could I still be 
devoured with anxieties about the house of prayer we 
are building ? I have no workmen. I have no money, 
but — let me say it to myself — the Lord will provide." 

The news of the surrender at Sedan, on September 2nd, 
fell like a thunderbolt upon the small French community, 
and M. Coillard was heartbroken, especially at the occu- 
pation of Metz and Strasburg. His feelings were what 
an Englishman's would be if a foreign army seized 
Oxford and appropriated the University. The kindly- 
meant expressions of sympathy uttered by some who 
were not French entirely missed the mark. He wrote: 
" On the subject of the surrender of the Emperor and 
the whole of his army, they say, ' Well, at least there are 
90,000 men saved.' What an abomination ! And the 
complications and all the frightful disasters brought 
about by this act of incomparable cowardice ? . , . they 
say nothing of that ! " 



1870] FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 195 



C. C. to her Sister : — 

"October 27, 1870. 
" . . . How poor Frank's heart is bursting with indig- 
nation and pity . . . oh, as I write what tears must be 
flowing ! We heard that everybody we know had gone 
(to the war) in one capacity or another ; who of them 
are still alive ? We have already received orders to draw 
no more money. As for us, we can easily get on for a 
while without money ; thanks to the Committee's box 
and one from home we don't want for clothes, and our 
garden will yield us plenty of food for this year. . . . 
Was it not interesting, that discussion in the Senate 
about the return of Louis Philippe's children, when one 
of their warm supporters related how they served in the 
Italian campaign, and the Due de Chartres was sent one 
day with a message to a commanding officer, who, not 
knowing him, said, ' M. le Lieutenant speaks French 
very nicely.' 'Yes,' he replied, his eyes swimming with 
tears, ' I know French, for I was born in Paris ' " ? 



F. C. to his Mother: — 

" Leribe, January 29, 1871. 
" I cannot tell you the sorrow of my heart in thinking 
of that fearful war and of you. Our last news was of 
November 5th. What may not have happened since? 
Have the Prussians really dared to go as far as Bourges 
and devastate Berry? Oh, what would I not give to 
know where you are, how you are, if you have suffered 
through the winter ! ... If only I had you under my 
own roof, what care we would take of you, my dear, 
dear Mother ! . . . Perhaps you will remember poor old 
Maria, to whom you once sent a dress. ... I have just 
heard of her death — she died on her knees." 



196 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



To the Same : — 

"August, 1871. 
" This letter from Nathanael I am sure will give you 
great pleasure. He does not speak lightly; what he says 
he thinks. Since my arrival in this country he has 
always been a faithful friend; since his conversion he 
has become a brother whose devotion knows no bounds. 
I rarely do any manual work in the garden or elsewhere 
that he does not throw himself into with energy and 
perseverance. He is a chief ; he has great dignity, and 
he reflects admirably in his life that charity which 
' thinketh no evil, beareth all things and hopeth all 
things.' (Fr. version: Suspects nothing, excuses all 
things, bears all things.) What I . . . send you may 
amount to £4, it is the value of Nathanael' s ox. I shall 
try to send you something more before winter, that you 
may not be in difficulties." . . . 

To F. C.'s Mother :— 

" Leribe, July 9, 1871. 
'* My Mother, — I am Nathanael Makotoko, I salute you 
in the love of the Lord. Since the war has broken out 
in France my heart is full of sorrow. I know what war 
is, what sufferings it brings with it. I thought of you, 
I knew you were very aged, I asked myself sadly if you 
would leave this world without knowing me, and when I 
thought of sending you my salutations, I told myself 
that your great age, perhaps, would prevent your under- 
standing me. My pastor tells me that ' no ' ; so now 
that the war is over and that letters come and go with- 
out hindrance, my heart burns within me, and I come to 
tell you so. I shall say very little, however, for I am 
only a child. You have sent your son to Basutoland, 
in the Lord's name. His love for you tells us your love 
for him. You have other children, you see them near 



1871] NATHAKAEL'S LETTER 197 



you ; all your thoughts are with him who is amongst us. 
You think you have only one son at Leribe, because you 
sent only one. No, my Mother, you have two; the 
second is myself, Nathanael. It is you who have given 
me life in the Lord, for it is you who gave birth to the 
servant of God, my beloved pastor, who came to draw 
me out of darkness that I might walk in the light. You 
have many children in Leribe, and you will have many 
more yet. As for me, I call myself your son ; I do not 
utter vain words ; what I say comes from my heart. I 
love the Mother of my pastor, I pray for her. It is to 
you that I owe the happiness I enjoy in knowing and 
serving God. God bless you ! You have not seen my 
face here below, but you will know it in the Heaven to 
which we are going. 

" My salutation is a trifling thing, yet accept it as a 
pledge of the affection of one of your children. It is 
a black ox, with branching horns. It is thus I make 
myself known to you, my Mother. May your sons and 
daughters who are around you know me too, and count 
me as one of themselves ! And when you think of your 
beloved son whom you have sent and whom we love, 
think also of your other son who is called 

"Nathanael Makotoko." 

The Conference had met at ThabaBossio in November, 
1870, to consider the situation. The treasury of the 
Society in Paris was empty : their agent at the Cape had 
to be instructed not to honour the drafts of the mis- 
sionaries, but with what they still had in the bank they 
thought it would be possible to pull through. The mason 
who was building the church had offered to tear up the 
contract, but M. Coillard decided not to accept this offer 
before the Conference. This was a step further in the 
life of faith : the first time he had undertaken a definite 



198 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



responsibility without having funds in hand to meet it. 
In ordinary circumstances he would have thought it 
wrong, but the work had been begun and the contract 
made months before this calamity, under a strong sense 
that it was the right thing to do. He told his colleagues 
the state of affairs and committed the decision to them. 
They all sympathised with him ; said the building must 
go on and they would try to interest friends to help. 

An offer of aid which touched him deeply at this time, 
though he could not accept it, was made by a Jewish 
gentleman named Levy, a merchant whom he had known 
intimately at Kuruman and Motito, and with whom he 
had spent many hours reading and discussing the Mes- 
sianic Scriptures. Immediately the news of the Franco- 
Prussian War reached him, Mr. Levy sent to M. Coillard, 
begging him to draw upon his own bankers for whatever 
he might need to meet current expenses, and in particular 
the builder's contract. 

Affairs grew worse instead of better, and even corre- 
spondence became impossible as soon as the war was 
carried into France and Paris besieged. Now it was seen 
that the three years' exile of the French missionaries had 
had another result, besides the Eevival in Basutoland. 
Wherever they had gone they had made friends ; and 
now, in their hour of need, these came to their help. A 
considerable sum of money was raised in Natal and Cape 
Colony, and also in England and Scotland. Thus the 
two years of difficulty were tided over. 

The church was duly finished and paid for; and it 
was dedicated on Whit Sunday, May 28, 1871 — a festival 
for the whole Mission. 

Almost immediately afterwards died Johanne Nkele, 
the first convert baptized by M. Coillard, and, on the 
whole, the finest fruit of all his work. His was not such 
a picturesque career as Nathanael's, but he possessed a 



1872] THE FIRST SYNOD 199 



strength of character in which the latter was sometimes 
lacking, and he was one of the earliest and best of native 
evangelists. His death was a great grief to all. 

The Fikst Synod. 
The French missionaries had always endeavoured to 
associate their converts with themselves in the discipline 
of the Church, instead of keeping everything in their 
own hands. A Synod was held in 1872, at which they 
were encouraged to give their judgment, especially as to 
whether various social practices were or were not incon- 
sistent with Christianity. They decided that when the 
chiefs called upon their people for forced labours (letsema) 
the Christians must respectfully refuse those tasks which 
identified them with heathen practices. When the 
Christians of Leribe acted upon this, Molapo retaliated by 
taking away the herds he had confided to their keeping. 
The entrusting of cattle herds was and is the accepted 
token of a chief's confidence ; like the Royal Commission. 
The chief allows his vassal to live on the milk and 
sometimes to kill an ox, but at any time, if displeased, 
he may demand an account of these cattle and of their 
increase. If the account is not satisfactory, the sovereign 
demands compensation ; but if still further angered, he 
withdraws the trust altogether. This is a public disgrace 
as well as a loss of income, and this was what now befell 
the Christian chiefs, Nathanael and others. It created 
a great sensation. For Nathanael the case was the 
harder as his position was higher — he was the nephew of 
Moshesh, a famous warrior, and the accredited ambas- 
sador in all external missions. His signal services to this 
nation have been told in Chapter X. With a very little 
accommodation to heathenism, just as a matter of form, 
he could have become rich and powerful, but " he chose 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God." Now, 



200 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



in his old age, he is well cared for and respected by all, 
white or black ; but he is a comparatively poor man, and 
has exercised moral influence rather than political power. 

The poorer Christians Molapo would ill-treat by always 
grazing his cattle close to their fields, or making a garden 
wherever their cattle were grazing. If his beasts strayed 
into their plantations and ate their crops up, he accused 
them of theft and fined them. If their beasts strayed 
into his field they were forfeited as trespassers. In the 
end, he succeeded in driving most of the Church members 
away to Thlotsi and elsewhere, which was what he desired, 
thus putting several miles between them and their mis- 
sionary. Whilst the bulk remained faithful to their pro- 
fession, some were dragged back into heathenism ; and 
many more who might have become Christians with a 
little shepherding were discouraged from attending the 
services or thinking of joining the Church. But in face of 
all this the work progressed. 

It is often and rightly thought that the training of 
children yields the best results for Christianity. But the 
power of the Gospel is not limited : it is strikingly shown 
in the changed lives of the ignorant and aged, as in those 
of Damaris and Bahab at Leribe. 

Ma-Moteke (Damaris). 

C. C. TO HEE SlSTEE : — 

" I took Mrs. Bell to see the Christians who live here on 
the station, and among others a very old woman called 
Ma-Moteke (Damaris). She took hold of Mrs. B. by the 
hand and said to her, ' Sister, cling to Christ ; don't let 
Him go. You must not be astonished if you feel some- 
times on your back little strokes as if some one were 
tapping you ; it is not anything that can hurt you, only 




REV. G. WEITZECKER AND BASUTO CATECHISTS. 
Nathanael Makotoko on Mr. Weitzecker's right hand. 



[To face p. 200. 



1872] 



DAMARIS 



201 



the Good Shepherd pressing you on that you may run to 
your Father. 

" 'Perhaps you think I am old ! Not at all. I have grown 
a young girl since I began to serve Christ. If you doubt, 
just ask Madame, and she will tell you that before I 
knew the Lord I was very old. I never used to go to dig 
or weed ; I said, " All that is over for me in this world," 
but now I have a large garden of maize which I dig and 
weed all by myself. I am a young girl, I am quite white, 
I am no longer black. Oh, I am so happy ! ' 

" This is only part of what this dear old creature said. 
. . . No one who looked at her dear old face could doubt 
for an instant that it was from the heart that she spoke. 
I will never forget the day I was present when she came 
to speak to her pastor, previous to being admitted into 
the candidates' class. She repeated over and over to F., 
' I did not know that I had a Father. I have been serv- 
ing the world all my life, and getting drunk with beer, 
but, my teacher, I did not know any better. I had not 
yet heard that I had a Father ! ' This was the refrain of 
all she had to say." 

Ma-Moteke was an old woman of Matabele origin, who 
was deserted by her family when fleeing from some 
skirmish with the Basutos. She seemed ignorant and 
stupid to the last degree, but she had such an affection 
for M. and Mme. Coillard that they let her come about 
the place as often as she liked. Every Saturday she used 
to come from a long distance across the Caledon to earn 
a trifle by sweeping the courts ready for Sunday. This 
was in 1862. If the river was too full to ford, she had 
herself swum across on a bundle of reeds, such was her 
devotion to them. M. Coillard, who reverenced all 
women, and believed in the possibilities of the most 
degraded, often talked to her, and after a time both he 



202 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



and his wife perceived a great change in her, but then 
again no further progress seemed to be made. Every time 
they spoke to her of Christ, she would burst into tears 
and make no reply. At last one day he said, " Ma- 
Moteke, you know all about the Gospel, and we go on 
praying for you, but you do nothing. It is no use talking 
to you any more ; you must pray for yourself. Do you 
pray ? " 

" No, never ! I can only talk Zulu. I do not know 

Sesuto." 

" But you can pray just as well in Zulu." 
Ma-Moteke caught both his hands. "Do you really 
mean that God understands my language ? " 
" Yes, indeed, all languages." 

Ma-Moteke went quickly away, and poured out her 
heart in Zulu. After that, she advanced in Christian life 
by leaps and bounds. From being stupid she became 
remarkably intelligent, and from being old and feeble, she 
seemed to renew her youth like the eagles. Besides 
working in the fields, she would go all about, telling 
people the Good News, with such simplicity and delight 
they could not help listening. It was that she had a 
Heavenly Friend who took an interest in her, a despised 
old woman : such a surprising fact she wanted every one 
to know about it. It was her delight to tell the youngest 
children about Him, and few have influenced them more 
than she. She never learnt Sesuto well, and on Mondays 
when she had swept the court after Sunday r she would 
seat herself on the verandah by Mme. Coillard and say, 
" I am hungry." At first, her hostess did not understand 
and would give her food, which she put aside and said 
again, "I am hungry." Then Mme. Coillard would tell 
her all about the sermon, hymns, and prayers, which she 
had not understood the day before. Often she would ask, 
"Shall I see Him,?" 



1872] A SURPRISE PARTY 203 



On her long tramps to and from Leribe she had to pass 
the Roman Catholic Mission. The natives called it 
Motse oa Ma-Jesu (City of the Mother of Jesus). One 
day she was returning from a prayer-meeting when the 
priest met her and asked her where she had been. When 
she told him, he asked, " Indeed, and to whom do these 
Protestants pray? " 

" To the Lord Jesus, our Saviour." 

" Ah, they do not teach you the whole truth. Now, 
how can He listen to the prayers of a poor old woman 
like you ? It is to His Mother you should speak ; she 
will bring your prayers to Him and then He will grant 
them." 

" What did you answer ? " asked M. Coillard, to whom 
she related this. 

" Oh, ntate ; what could a stupid woman like me say 
to that wise man ? I could only tell him, ' It was not His 
Mother I saw hanging on the Cross for me : it was Him- 
self. That is why I pray to Him.' " 

Some months after their return to Leribe some of the 
American missionaries came to visit the Coillards at their 
station. The Basutos heard they were there, and with- 
out telling their pastor, they prepared a surprise party, 
quite in the American style. (Was that institution 
borrowed, like the camp-meeting, from the negroes?) 
They killed and cooked goats, sheep, fowls, and an ox, 
then late at night they surrounded the station singing 
hymns in chorus. M. Coillard, finding the noise at that 
hour somewhat untimely, came out and found the stoep 
literally covered with victuals. 

" What is all this ? " he asked the elders present. 

"It is for our friends among the Zulus. They took 
care of our father when he was ill ; and these are our 
thanks." 

The visitors could hardly restrain their tears. When 



204 COILLAEJD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the party had reluctantly departed after a prolonged 
serenade, poor old Damaris arrived with an enormous 
pumpkin. She had been working in the fields, and, not 
having been told about it, she had not shared in the offer- 
ing. " What shall I do with this ? " asked M. Coillard. 
" Oh, do what you please — I am so happy to have a pump- 
kin to give. If I had not had one, oh my Father, I would 
have brought a glass of water." 

Damaris died in February, 1876. "During her illness 
she saw a little grandchild, about eleven years old, was 
weeping about her soul. The old woman turned round 
and said, * What do my ears hear ? that you are longing 
after the Lord Jesus ? It is the sweetest word I have 
heard — long for Jesus all your life ! ' " 

Eahab. 

Mme. Coillard to her Mother : — 

" November 29, 1873. 

"... We are beginning now to have our summer rains, 
and really they are sometimes so dreadful, accompanied 
by such fearful thunder and lightning that it seems as if 
the very mountains would be moved. ... It was so on 
Tuesday evening ; even old people say that they have 
never seen such a storm. It has washed away many 
cornfields. This is the case with Eahab, a woman of our 
Church, who lives here. She has lost all the crops she 
had sown. To-day she was in her field, and some people 
came into it and gathered up a quantity of wood and 
stumps of trees. She said to them, 'What are you 
doing here ? You know this is my field, and by the 
laws of this land all that the floods bring into one's field 
belongs to the owner of it ? ' 

" ' Oh, but,' replied these people, ' this flood is not like 
another flood ; it is Molapo's storm. He paid Putsi, the 



1873] 



KAHAB 



205 



rain-doctor, for it ; and he says that all the hurricane 
brings must be gathered up for him.' . . . Rahab was 
very sorry to hear such blasphemy, so she said a few 
pointed words and left the people to take the wood. As 
she was coming home a crowd of people working in a 
large field began screaming out, ' Rahab ! Rahab ! come 
here ; we want to say good-day to you.' When she came 
near they said in a jeering voice, ' Well, what do you say 
now ? Is it your God that has washed away all your 
corn ? What, then, is He going to give you to live on ? ' 
' Oh,' said Rahab, ' I know not, and I really don't feel 
at all anxious, for I know quite certainly that I won't die 
of hunger. Why, even you would not let me, much less 
my Father in heaven ! ' " . . . 

Rahab has only just passed away ; the writer saw her 
in 1903, a tall and almost beautiful woman, with most 
dignified bearing and manners. She had been one of 
Molapo's wives, but had obtained a legal release from 
him. To the end of his life she prayed for him ; and 
with Lydia (Ma-Mousa), his " great wife," who had 
returned to the faith, she cared for him in his last illness 
(1880), reading the Bible and praying with him, though 
his attendants would not let the missionaries come near 
him. Molapo never again made profession of Christianity. 
He was not satisfied with opposing it in a general way, 
but a diabolical cunning seemed to possess him in recog- 
nising by instinct those who were at all inclined to 
conversion, and in turning them back by force, flattery, 
or fraud, whichever weapon best fitted their particular 
case. Just at the end (1880) " one night he burst into 
tears and begged that they would remove him from where 
he was and take him to the missionaries" But he was 
dying of paralysis and could not be moved, and before M. 
D. could come to him he had already lost the power 



206 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



of speech. Such was the end of this apostate, of whom 
M. Coillard (then in Europe) wrote : " Who can penetrate 
the secrets of a soul with his God ? and who can say 
whether at the last hour this wandering child did not fall 
into the arms of his Father ? My position towards him 
and my deep affection for him make me feel the anguish 
of David over the death of Absalom." 

The Affair of Langalibalele. 
Journal : — 

11 December 13, 1873. 

" It was last Thursday, the 11th, that Langalibalele was 
taken prisoner at Molapo's by Mr. Griffith, accompanied 
by Major Bell. This poor chief, brought from the moun- 
tains by Jonathan [Molapo's son], came and gave himself 
up (est venu se rendre lui-meme). 

" One's heart is wrung at the thought of a betrayal : one 
dare not even think of it." 

The affair here referred to was destined to be a turning- 
point of the Coillards' future career, as will be seen 
hereafter. Langalibalele, chief of the Hlubis, being 
summoned to account for his possession of arms without 
a licence, defied the Government, surrounded the volun- 
teers sent against him, and killed five of them while their 
leader was waiting to parley with him. A commando 
was mobilised in order to prevent all the outlying Hlubis 
uniting. Langalibalele crossed from Natal into Basuto- 
land, not so much to take refuge as to induce Molapo 
to join forces with him. The British Government of 
course informed Molapo that if he harboured their foe 
he must be treated as the same. On this Molapo gave 
him up to the authorities ; they understood that he had 
been persuaded to surrender. In reality Molapo had 



1873] LANGALIBALELE 207 



invited him to his house, and while he was parleying, 
as he supposed, his warriors were surrounded and given 
up to the British. Then he was helpless and a prisoner. 
The word went forth through all the South African tribes 
that Molapo had betrayed his guest, and henceforth his 
name stank in their nostrils. The Zulus and Matabele 
were especially incensed, as Langalibalele was their kins- 
man ; moreover he had been good to the Basuto refugees 
during the war of 1865-8. Very strong feeling was 
aroused in England, and he was released and provided 
by Government with a farm, where he lived to a good old 
age. When Nathanael Makotoko heard he had been 
betrayed, he was indignant, and refused to go and see 
him. " We have eaten his food," he said ; " he sheltered 
us from the enemy : I cannot look upon his sorrow." 
Indeed, the whole Basuto nation felt the same ; and to 
this day regard the affair of Langalibalele as a blot upon 
their national scutcheon. 

Co-operation with the Dutch Eeformed Church. 

In 1874 M. Coillard had the great happiness of being 
invited with his colleague, M. Keck, to Bloemfontein, to 
be present at the induction of the first missionary of the 
Dutch Eeformed Church in the Orange Free State. That 
of the Cape had long had its missionaries. He had always 
been deeply attached to the Dutch Church of South 
Africa. The persecutions suffered from those belonging 
to it had wounded him all the more, as family wrongs 
are the hardest to bear. He wrote : "I love the Dutch 
Church ... the asylum of the French refugees, and 
wherever I can meet it, I love to report the Christian 
and missionary spirit that still dwells in its bosom. The 
wars and antagonisms of races, their continually con- 
flicting interests, have stifled, but they have not quite 



208 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



extinguished it. May God cause His Spirit to blow over 
this Church and her pastors." Such was the spirit in 
which he attended the ceremony at Bloemfontein, and 
spoke at two meetings. The missionary chosen was M. 
Maeder, son of one of his own colleagues, who was among 
the earliest members of the French Mission ; and this 
circumstance gave it an added joy, showing how the 
breach caused by the war was healing. From this time 
on it may be said that the French Mission and the Dutch 
Churches in the Cape and Orange Free State were recon- 
ciled. M. Coillard wrote to his friend, the Kev. J. Smith, 
of Natal :— 

" I can truly say -that I had not one bitter thought 
against any, nor even against that good President 
[Brand], who was kindly inquiring after my station, 
our return there, and Molapo, &c. I felt in true com- 
munion of spirit with the Dutch ministers present. God 
works wonders, and certainly this is one." . . . 

All missionaries were expected to practise medicine in 
those days. 

" 1876. 

" I am a medicin melgre moi ! In spite of my irritability 
and unwillingness, of my ignorance and my bad Dutch, 
the Boers come from all sides by horse and by wheel to 
get medicines and bring me patients. They say I per- 
form astounding cures. We must believe it since they 
say it : only it is not me nor yet the medicine, but He 
who hears the prayers of His children. 

" The heathen have not the same confidence in me." . . . 

After many delays and disappointments, the rains often 
destroying hundreds of bricks in a single night, the Mis- 
sion-house was at length finished. It is a small but 



1875] THE LERIBE MISSION HOUSE 209 



substantial building of brick faced with stone, raised on a 
pretty natural terrace overlooking the garden and the 
fields sloping down to the Caledon. The spot is an 
ideal one, and its natural advantages make the building 
look much more imposing than it really is. They both 
loved it passionately, and Mme. Coillard wrote to her 
sisters : " People say there is not such a pretty, well- 
finished house in Basutoland as ours. I think so too." 

Since the advent of the magistrate they had started an 
English service for the traders and other white residents. 
" This is a true mission work," she wrote again, " and I 
think it is much appreciated." [The Anglican Church at 
Thlotsi was not established till 1876.] 

Now the work of Leribe was in every way a delightful 
one. Though there was much to exercise faith and self- 
denial, still they saw the result of their labours in a 
nourishing congregation and a growing number of out- 
stations. They were both verging on middle age : hard- 
ships were less easy than twenty years before, and it 
seemed as if they were now to enter on a period of com- 
parative rest, after all the perils and toils of their youth. 
God in His providence had other plans for them ; and, 
unknown to themselves, He was preparing the work for 
them and them for the work. 

M. COILLAED'S WORK IN BASUTOLAND. 

An Appreciation by Bev. H. Dieterlen, his successor at Leribe. 

M. Coillard had the very rare privilege of having two distinct 
missionary lives, each one of which any missionary might be proud 
of. His Basuto life — twenty years — and his Barotsiland life — 
twenty years. During both, he had the activity of a pioneer. The 
former was a good preparation for the latter, but was in itself a 
complete and noble life. In Basutoland, he was a leader of 
men ... a first-class missionary. 

Pastoral Work on the Station. — [In later years] most of the 
people thereon were Christians. He . . . gave them a very strong 
Christian education. Many of them are still living, and the traces 

15 



210 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



of his influence are very noticeable among them. [M. Dieterlen, 
writing to the Journal des Missions, says that their characteristic 
is that they learnt from M. Coillard to read the Bible and study 
it for themselves with a real personal interest.] He was himself 
a strong character and a strong Christian, although his appearance, 
his expression, and his voice were rather mild. He wished to mould 
men's souls, and he could do it too I People under his pastoral care 
bore his mark ; some were Christians of a remarkable type. But 
here we must not forget that the natives generally are a people 
of a low type, that the matiere premiere is coarse. When speaking 
of native Christians, it must not be forgotten that they cannot be 
compared with what you call in Europe first-rate Christians. . . . Our 
Basutos are not developed enough to realise all that was in M. 
Coillard. He was so superior to them, so refined and that in every 
respect — that the Basutos could not appreciate him to his full value. 
This is true for all missionaries, but especially for a man like M. 
Coillard. In Europe he met with people and congregations worthy 
of him, and quite able to enjoy and to understand his gifts and the 
"niceties " of his person, of his speech, and of his piety. . . . 

Power as a Preacher in the Pulpit. — . . . Both converted and un- 
converted liked to listen to M. Coillard's sermons. They also liked his 
way of talking privately to them, for his polite manners, the softness 
of his voice and of his eyes, his picturesque or witty sayings, were 
just what natives like. In Basutoland he was reckoned as perhaps 
the best preacher of the missionary body. . . . The secret of this 
was not only power, which only appeared now and then, but some- 
thing seductive or persuasive which went to the heart. . . . He knew 
how to beg people to give themselves, and when he spoke they were 
inclined to yield to him. . . . 

Literary Work (see p. 104). — He added very much to the 
language as a literary instrument. His speciality was to use words 
which no other missionary knew, though they were good Sesuto. 

Influence in Secular Affairs. — He lived at a time when mis- 
sionaries had much to do with chiefs and were obliged to interfere in 
political matters, there being no European power in the country. . . . 
I have often been told by old people that M. Coillard's wisdom and 
advice saved Molapo's people from dangerous circumstances, and that, 
thanks to his intervention, questions were peacefully settled which 
might have drawn the Basutos into wars with their white neighbours. 
But he was not afraid of taking certain risks, and of saying plainly 
what he thought was right and good. 

As, a Pioneer. — Even in Basutoland he laid the foundation of all 
mission work now existing in the northern part of the country. Be- 
sides that, he was a party to all that was done for the establishment 
of a native Basuto Church, self-supported and endowed with self- 
government. He was a progressive, one always ready to suggest 
new enterprises. He favoured schoolwork a great deal, and possessed 
great tastes and qualifications for it. . . . He was not one of the 
founders of the Basuto Mission, but he was one of the second period, 
who took the mission as it was and gave it a new impulse. 



CHAPTEK XII 



THE ORIGIN OF THE BANYAI EXPEDITION 
1875-1876 

A Mission from the Basutos to other tribes — Visit of Major Malan — 
Conference at King William's Town — Disaster of M. Dieterlen's 
Expedition — A deferred furlough. 

THE rapid spread of Christianity among the Basuto 
Christians after peace was re-established very soon 
developed a missionary spirit. Even before the war, 
some of those whose consciences were burdened with 
the memory of former raids on their neighbours (especially 
the Bapelis), had tried to bring them a compensation 
in the shape of the Gospel of Peace. But these tribes 
close at hand were now being evangelised by the Berlin 
and other missions ; so if the re-awakened desire was to 
be gratified they must look further afield. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Hofmeyr, the first missionary sent 
beyond its own borders by the Dutch Church of Cape 
Colony, had settled at Geodgedacht, in the Zoutpansberg. 
He was a warm-hearted and devoted man, anxious to 
work in the fullest harmony with the two French- 
speaking Missions, i.e., the Paris Mission, and the newly 
founded Mission de la Suisse Komande, in the Spelonken 
(Transvaal) . He strongly advised the Swiss workers and 

M. Mabille, who had accompanied them on their first 

211 



212 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



reconnaissance in force, to let their native helpers explore 
the Banyai region in order to find there a mission-field 
for the Basutos. Accordingly, Asser, from Morija, with 
Jonathan (not Molapo's son), of Leribe, and two of Mr. 
Hofmeyr's evangelists, went there to reconnoitre. It was 
thought that the missions of the Zoutpansberg, being in 
full fellowship with them, would be a link in the chain 
of transport between the new mission and its base in 
Basutoland — a sensible and practical idea as it seemed. 
But this was not to be. 

No one at this time seems to have known that the 
Banyai and other Mashona tribes were vassals of 
Lo Bengula, the Matabele king, the son and successor 
of Mosilikatse. 

Asser was the leader, a born explorer and a most 
able man. He brought back word that the Banyai 
were an intelligent people, who were very willing to 
receive missionaries, and who had already chosen sites 
for the stations. 

The Banyai country in Mashonaland was then but 
little explored. Thomas Baines, the friend and com- 
panion of Livingstone in some of his journeys, published, 
in 1877, a book describing it, called the Gold-Bearing 
Regions of Central Africa. It contained a map, largely 
filled in, but hardly detailed enough to be much guide 
for those who had actually to travel there. Asser made 
careful notes of times and distances, fountains, and names 
of chiefs, to be a guide for the future. His report created 
enthusiasm in Basutoland, both among the missionaries 
and their flocks, among whom, meanwhile, a spiritual 
movement had been going on, of which he and his 
companions knew nothing. 

It was much wanted. In spite of outward zeal and 
increasing numbers, all was not right with the Basuto 
Christians ; far from it. Few of them realised that the 



1875] MAJOR MALAN 



213 



Christian life meant anything more than breaking with 
heathen customs. The missionaries themselves felt they 
had given out all their energy, and needed a new endow- 
ment of power. M. Coillard's letters and journals reflect 
his own sense of something wanting. 

This need was met for him through the visit of Major 
Malan, the grandson of Caesar Malan, and himself a retired 
officer of the British army. During the distress caused 
by the Franco-Prussian War, he had sent £1,000 from 
Singapore to help the French Missions. Since then two 
movements had been stirring Great Britain — the Gospel 
preaching of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, and the so-called 
Consecration Movement, the call to a higher ideal of 
life and service. The latter had made its impressions 
chiefly through two memorable meetings, one at Oxford 
and one at Brighton. Many French Christians were 
present at these, and received a great and permanent 
blessing, of which they told their friends in the mission- 
field. Hence, the latter gladly welcomed Major Malan 
as the messenger of the new, or rather newly revived, 
truth, needed for a new emergency. Perhaps nothing 
illustrates better the spirit of the French Mission in 
Basutoland, the absence of sectarian or international 
prejudice among its workers than this, their readiness to 
accept any sound counsel and spiritual help that could 
forward the work entrusted to them. 

The visit of Dr. Duff to the Conference of Carmel, in 
1864, had been the point of departure for the internal 
development of the work, the planting of out-stations 
under native evangelist-schoolmasters, and the setting 
up of the Normal School to train these ; in short, of the 
Inner Mission. 

The visit of Major Malan was the point of departure 
of the Mission Expedition to the Zambesi — the Foreign 
Mission of the Basuto Church. It is true that he did not 



214 COIL LARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



suggest it; that had been done long before by M. Mabille; 
but he warmly espoused it, kindled the flame of sacrifice 
that made it possible, pleaded for it, and himself gave the 
first and largest donation towards founding a permanent 
work beyond the Zambesi, when the Expedition ended, 
and when it was seen that the undertaking would be far 
beyond the resources of the Basuto Church. 

Major Malan arrived at Leribe on Christmas Day, 1874, 
and had not been ten minutes on the station before he 
had given his first address to the people there assembled, 
M. Coillard acting as interpreter. 

Mme. Coillard to her Sister : — 

"January, 1875. 
"We have a beloved guest under our roof at present, 
Major Malan. Oh, what a man of prayer he is, and so 
self-denying and fearful of indulging himself in anything 
which might tend to weaken his spirituality of mind. He 
has given us a lesson which I at least needed, and which 
I hope I will not soon forget. He finds us all in South 
Africa so lacking in the spirit of prayer and so anxious 
after our comfort and ease." . . . 

From this it will be seen that Major Malan's standard 
was a very high one indeed. The effect of all this was 
seen in the reception accorded to the exploring party which 
returned from Banyailand in May, 1875. M. Coillard 
wrote of it some years later : — 

" Asser's return to Basutoland was the electric spark 
which kindled into flame the missionary zeal of his fellow- 
Christians there. It would be difficult to exaggerate the 
effect of his addresses. ' Ah, why could I not cut off my 
arms and legs,' he cried, ' and make every limb of mine 
a missionary to those poor Banyai ? ' At one memorable 



1875] THE BANYAI MISSION 215 



meeting an old man rose at the back of the Church. 
'Enough of talking,' he said, 'let us do something.' 
And advancing to the Communion Table, he put down a 
modest half-crown. The impetus had been given. The 
whole assembly followed his example, and the movement 
spread to all the other stations. . . . The sum of £500 
was raised in a very short time, without counting quantities 
of cattle, small and great. The Missionary Conference 
could no longer hesitate. At its next session, in August 
of the same year, the Mission [to the Banyai] was 
unanimously decided upon. The money found, the men 
offered themselves. Four were chosen, and they at once 
prepared to start with their families." 

M. and Mme. Mabille having their hands full with the 
Normal School, M. and Mme. Coillard held themselves 
ready in their own minds to go with this expedition, but 
they did not offer their services, fearing to "run without 
being sent." 

The Conference, however, decided not to ask them, nor 
any others in charge of a station, in order not to upset 
any work already going on. The four native catechists 
with their families were to start alone ; and a request 
was addressed to the Transvaal Government to give them 
a passport through their territories. The Coillards, there- 
fore, who were about to take their first furlough after 
seventeen years in Africa, resumed their preparations for 
going to Europe, and looked upon their future at Leribe, 
in their delightful home, as more or less a certainty. The 
work demanded all their energies ; it had never been 
more flourishing. Mme. Coillard once wrote to her 
sister : "I think I was too fond of my home and too 
proud of it, and this must be the reason why I had to be 
emptied out from vessel to vessel and shaken up." 

In the autumn of the same year, 1875, a Conference 



216 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



took place at King William's Town, somewhat on the 
lines of the Mildmay Conference. To this M. Coillard and 
his friend, M. Mabille, betook themselves, drawn by their 
own deep needs, no less than by Major Malan's urgent 
invitation. It involved riding nearly one thousand miles 
there and back, including detours ; but they felt it well 
worth while to journey so far for a blessing. M. Coillard 
also wished to place his adopted child, Samuel Makotoko, 
at Lovedale School, and it was then that he learned to 
know his life-long friend, Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale. 

The Conference, or " Consecration meeting," as M. 
Coillard called it, was presided over by Colonel (now 
Lieut. -General) Ward, who was also the host of Major 
Malan and his two friends. The subjects were : — 

1st day — Christ, Emmanuel. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the 

Godhead bodily. 
2nd day — Ourselves, believers. " Ye are complete in Him." 
3rd day — The necessary consequences of these two facts — complete 

consecration to God. "Your bodies . . . a living 

sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 

reasonable service." 

" To Mabille and myself," wrote M. Coillard, many years 
later, " it was more than a spiritual feast ; it was a revela- 
tion. . . . We had, as it were, a vision of the Lord. It 
seemed to us that we had never given ourselves, that we 
did not even know the A B C of renunciation, and we 
were haunted by the sense of this." 

Stay-at-homes looking at a finished map may learn 
more in five minutes than did the first explorers in five 
years. But no one can appreciate its value and meaning 
like him who has trodden every mile it represents, in 
hunger, thirst, and weariness. This was how the doctrine 
of "consecration" now presented itself to one who had 




Stage I.— Raising the roof. 




1875] CONSECRATION 217 



long sought to realise it in practice. For the first time 
fully he saw that if Christ was everything, not only for 
justification, but for sanctification and for service, then 
self, even the best self, must disappear. " I am crucified 
with Christ, nevertheless, I live; yet not I but Christ 
liveth in me." 

M. Coillard had all his life the greatest horror of 
religious fictions ; and of emotion, which ought to be a 
spiritual force, evaporating in mere sentiment. 

With him, as with Mabille, to see a truth was to put 
it in practice. Hence, what follows : — 

" Our project of extending the Mission [to Banyailand] 
. . . was the one theme of our conversation as we rode 
back. One day [Major Malan, Mabille, and I] were 
crossing the Kiver Key, and climbing the slopes, when, 
in obedience to an irresistible impulse, we all three sprang 
from our horses, knelt in the shadow of a bush . . . and 
taking each other as witness, we offered ourselves indi- 
vidually to the Lord for the new Mission — an act of deep 
solemnity which made us all brothers in arms. Im- 
mediately we remounted, Major Malan waved his hat, 
spurred his horse, and galloped up the hill, calling out 
'Three soldiers ready to conquer Africa.' 

"Mabille and I said, ' ... by God's grace we will be 
true till death.' And we meant it. That marked a new 
era in our life, and was, in so far as we were concerned, 
the true origin of the Barotsi Mission." 

He always wrote a note of greeting to his wife, even if 
he was with her, on birthdays and anniversaries. The 
following note, accompanying a New Year's gift, shows 
how deeply this new thought had already sunk into his 
mind. (The date is evidently a slip of the pen for 1876.) 



218 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



F. C. to C. C. :— 

" Lekibe, January 1, 1875[6]. 

" Let us consecrate ourselves to the Lord ; yes, let us 
place ourselves upon the altar, and offer ourselves to Him 
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him — 
which is our reasonable service. Can we do less for Him 
who has given Himself for us ? Let us be His, body and 
soul. . . . How we have served ourselves, while professing 
to be serving Him ! what selfishness ! what pride ! what 
vainglory have soiled our ministry ! Lord, pardon. 
Lord, accept the sacrifice of ourselves. We have nothing 
to offer Thee, accept us as we are. 

"Yes, the Lord will grant us the grace to complete the 
sacrifice . . . and not to take back for ourselves what we 
have consecrated to Him. What a change in our lives, 
if we offer this sacrifice to our Saviour-God in beginning 
this New Year ! 

" I can catch glimpses of that change, . . . but describe 
it — no ! I see it first in our innermost life where so 
many things displease the Lord ! And then in our house, 
where our influence will be felt in a totally different 
manner. And then in our relations with the people 
of our village, and also in our flock. And above all, 
in our relations with the heathen, and Molapo at their 
head. . . . How overwhelmed I feel under the weight of 
our shortcomings. I wish I could begin my ministry 
over again — sweep away everything, yes, everything ! I 
cannot do it, but God will pardon me." 

Jouknal F. C. : — 

" May 30, 1876. 
" N. [Nathanael?] has twice prayed for me with a 
fervour which surprised me ; and he asked the Lord for 
a very special favour for me. Will it be done to him 
according to his faith? . . . 



1876] M. DIETERLEN'S REPULSE 219 



" Saturday, June 11th. 
" The post this week brings us news of Dieterlen's return 
with his people ! Asser and his company were imprisoned 
at Pretoria. Dieterlen was let off with a bail of £300, 
and then they were driven out. They have come back." 

The story of this disaster has often been told but never 
quite completely. The impression has perhaps uncon- 
sciously gained ground that the French expedition was 
the object of a general persecution on the part of the 
Transvaal burghers. That was not so. No doubt many 
of them were, and still are, strongly opposed to mission 
work. But they were not personally opposed to 
missionaries. That feeling, which had certainly existed 
at the time of the Great Trek, and had been renewed 
during the war of 1865 to 1868, had generally melted 
away in actual contact with men whom they respected as 
the servants of God, and treated hospitably and kindly 
as one white man treats another in a savage land. 
General Joubert, as President of the Transvaal, had 
wished the Swiss missionaries God-speed only a few 
months before, and was on perfectly friendly terms with 
the French ones. Whence, then, the change of front? 
It must be looked for in the change of Government. Mr. 
Burgers was now President in place of Joubert. He was 
a very able and intellectual man, an ex-Predikant, who 
had resigned the ministry owing to his rationalistic views. 
For this reason his fellow-citizens did not view him with 
favour. He saw the great danger to which the infant 
State was exposed, almost bankrupt and surrounded by 
heathen tribes armed to the teeth. He thought that the 
effect of mission-work would be to render the latter still 
more formidable and aggressive. Hence permission had 
been refused to the Basuto catechists to go to the Banyai 
unless they were accompanied by a European. This was 



220 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



recognised as a reasonable condition, and the Conference 
accepted the offer of M. Dieterlen, then newly arrived 
and unmarried, to pilot the evangelists to their new 
home, see them safely installed, and report upon it to 
the Committee. 

The Basutos had grown rich since the war ; means 
were not lacking, and they were augmented by the gifts 
of many other Native Churches who sent representatives 
to the General Synod — held at Leribe, April 5th to 11th. 
It was a tremendous undertaking for the poor and 
small Church at Leribe to entertain such a multitude, 
but they did it ; and the moment was a happy one for 
its pastor and his wife, in a place where, eighteen 
years before, there was not one Christian convert, to 
see the people turning out of their houses and killing 
their cattle to welcome their brethren. M. Coillard 
wrote : — 

"It was under these happy auspices that, after 
numerous and deeply impressive meetings, we com- 
mended our dear brother Dieterlen and his four com- 
panions, with their families, to the Lord's keeping. 
We were bidding them farewell in the very place 
whence in by-gone days bands of marauding cannibals 
used to scour the country, and whence at the head of 
his clan emigrated the chief Sebitoane, the founder of 
the Makololo Kingdom on the Upper Zambesi. Survivors 
of those days were present, some converted, some still 
heathen, to see their fellow-countrymen going forth on 
a mission of peace. It was a striking object-lesson, and 
representatives from every part of the tribe were there to 
witness it. 

" Who would have believed that scarcely a month later 
this expedition would come to an abrupt end in the prison 
of a civilised and Christian State? Yet so it was." 



1876] PRETORIA GAOL 221 



One of the provisions of the Sand Eiver Convention 
had been that white men were to be free to travel in and 
through the territory of the South African Kepublic with 
their native followers. Belying on this, M. Dieterlen 
led the party across the Vaal. They had expected some 
Custom House delays ; but, meeting none, passed on to 
Pretoria, which they traversed with their waggons in 
broad daylight without being stopped. Two days later, 
May 10th, they were arrested at nightfall by two field 
cornets : the women and children sent to a farm several 
miles away ; the waggons and goods confiscated and 
searched; the men taken away and imprisoned on the 
ground that they were carrying a few guns and ammu- 
nition for shooting game ; but this was allowed for by the 
terms of the treaty. M. Dieterlen urged that Banyailand, 
being unappropriated territory, they had as much right to 
go there as any one else. " Do you know what our inten- 
tions are? Do you know what treaties we may have 
made with the natives or the Portuguese ? " asked the 
official. 

C. C. to her Brother : — 

"July 15, 1876. 
" As our little party were being led back to Pretoria, 
a lieutenant of police said to Onesima that they were quite 
mad to have been led into the delusion that they were 
preachers or catechists, . . . they were neither the one 
nor the other, they were simply Kaffirs, and always 
would remain so. As for God, they had nothing whatever 
to do with Him, and if by any accident a Kaffir, even 
one, were to be seen in Heaven when he got there, he 
would pick up his hat and wish [the Almagtij] goodbye 
and walk straight out. Good Onesima, in relating this, 
does not seem to have been at all struck by anything 
ludicrous in this speech : he says that he just held up 



222 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



his Testament to the Boer and inquired, 'If you walk 
out from God's presence, where will you go ? For this 
book which I hold in my hand only speaks of one other 
place.' He named that place, and its inhabitants, and 
for daring to do so, he was accused of insulting the 
authorities and speaking disrespectfully." 

In fact, he was put into the condemned cell, and 
perhaps Onesima's speech was hardly the best recom- 
mendation of native Christianity. 

Next morning Mr. Dieterlen was bailed out for £300 
by a German missionary (a Christian Israelite, it is 
interesting to record). He could not persuade the 
Government to let them go on, but he obtained the 
release of the catechists on the payment of £16 " for 
board," and the little party returned to Basutoland, dis- 
appointed but not discouraged. 

" The spirit of Missions is the spirit of Conquest. 
Forward, forward ! the Gospel entered Europe by a prison." 
These were M. Coillard's words to the Synod specially con- 
voked in July to consider the question. But he neither 
took nor was asked to take any step in the matter. 

Five months later another meeting was held (November 
1876). At that time he was ill, but he rose from his 
bed to attend it. 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

" I felt urged to go. It was the last time I should meet 
them all before leaving for Europe. . . . And yet an 
idea crossed my mind. I . . . told myself we must 
always be ready for the Lord's commands. . . . (After 
many discussions) they proposed to me to put off our 
journey to Europe and put myself at the head of this 
expedition. This proposition fell on me like a thunder- 
bolt. I made all the objections I could. . . . The 



1876] COUNTING THE COST 223 



family expecting us in Europe : and friends too — our 
preparations all made : on the one hand the appalling 
responsibility of this expedition, my own bad health, and 
finally the pecuniary question, above all, filled me with 
distress. I said that if they had proposed it to us at the 
earlier meeting we would have been ready to go, but 
things had gone too far now. ... It was thus I returned 
to Leribe exhausted with emotion, accompanied by C, 
who was to stay with us. I had written a letter to my 
wife to put it calmly before her. She was watching for 
my arrival as usual, . . . and received me with her usual 
smiling playfulness. Scarcely was I inside, when, 
relieving me of my bag, her eyes fell on the letter. 
Everything else was forgotten. She opened it, read it, 
folded it up without a word, but her expression had 
changed terribly. We spoke little and slept less for 
several days. Our conflicts were terrible, hers especially. 
We had the presentiment that God was calling us to a 
great sacrifice, and we said to Him, weeping : ' Give us 
strength to accomplish it, if it be Thy will.' 

" The thought of leading a wandering life full of perils 
and adventures, and leaving our station for so long, 
appalled us. However, we fixed a day for our final 
decision and redoubled the ardour of our prayers. We 
communicated our thoughts to no one. The evening of 
this very day, our friend C, who was not at all in 
sympathy with the appeal they had addressed to us, and 
who had not the least idea that the moment had come 
for us to decide, read the 91st Psalm to us. Never had 
it seemed so beautiful. When, after marking the 
magnificent promises, which came so aptly one by one, 
our brother came to verse eleven, ' He shall give His 
angels charge over thee,' the climax was reached. My 
wife and I looked at each other, and understood. The 
moment we were alone, ' Well ! ' I said to her. 



224 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



"'Well, with such an escort, we can go anywhere, 
even to the Zambesi.' 
' I think so too,' I said. 

"We knelt down, our resolution was taken, peace and 
cairn and joy returned to our hearts. No, we will not 
offer Thee that which costs us nothing. Here we are, 
Lord ; do with us as Thou wilt." 

The foregoing was written on Mme. Coillard's birthday. 
She was forty-seven. 

M. Coillard had to start at once for Natal, to buy the 
necessary equipment. 

" I bought the supplies for the expedition. I had 
prayed very much that I might not buy anything useless, 
and yet that everything might be right, and if I had it 
all to do over again to-day I could not take an item off 
the list. The purchases amounted to i£50." 

A few weeks before their departure, M. Coillard's niece 
Elise, a young French girl, arrived in Natal with a 
married sister who had intended to make a home for her, 
but who found herself unable to do so for the time being, 
and who, knowing nothing of their altered plans, very 
naturally thought her uncle and aunt would receive her for 
a while, and perhaps bring her back to Europe. There was 
nothing for it but to take her with them. In the end Elise 
became as a daughter to them. At the very same time M. 
Coillard found himself responsible for the orphan children 
of another brother who had just died, after being ruined 
through the war of 1872. The letter he wrote about it 
to the pastor of Asnieres, asking him to put them to school 
at his expense and keep him informed of their progress, 
is one more proof that neither he nor his wife ever pleaded 
public duties as an excuse for evading private ones, though 
only rigid self-denial could compass this responsibility. 



PART III 

THE BANYAI EXPEDITION 



16 



Never saw I faith so high 

In the Everlasting Lord: 
Courage to believe Him nigh ; 

Courage to believe His Word. 

Faith on soberest reason based, 
Faith that with the thinking mind 

Life's dark problems long hath faced, 
Yet trusts God and human kind. 



Eev. C. A. Fox. 



CHAPTEK XIII 



THE BANYAI EXPEDITION 
1877-1878 

Departure — Pretoria on Proclamation Day — Sir T. Shepstone — Mr. 
Hofmeyr's Dutch Mission — Wandering in Mashonaland — Adven- 
ture at Masonda's — Among the Banyai — The Matabele Raid — 
Carried Captive to Bulawayo. 

THE heading of this chapter brings us to the 
beginning of what was really the great work of 
M. Coillard's life. The account here given is taken 
directly from the journals of M. and Mme. Coillard, 
and not from the published volume in which he described 
it in detail. 

The chief feature of this achievement was not so much 
that it was breaking new ground, for others had visited 
the country though they had not traversed exactly the 
same route. But these had been solitary wanderers, 
whereas M. Coillard conducted an expedition, consisting 
of five families with attendants, for two years through 
the most unlooked for dangers and difficulties, and 
brought them safely home with the loss of only three 
lives, with their harmony unbroken, their zeal un- 
quenched, and their object achieved. This object was 
to find a mission field for the Basuto Christians 
themselves. 

On April 16, 1877, the party had a hearty send-off 

227 



228 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



from Leribe. Missionaries, traders, magistrates, all 
assembled, as well as the natives, Christian and heathen. 
Only one face was missing, Molapo's. That chief lay 
sick — it was the beginning of his last illness. Nathanael 
accompanied them to the border : he longed to go with 
them, but duty forbade. 

Here they parted from the work of their youth. 
Mme. Coillard turned to her husband as the waggon 
began to move, and said, " We have weighed anchor : 
God knows where we shall land. But He knoweth 
my wanderings, my tears are in His book." No one 
shared their own presentiments. It seemed to be 
thought they were beginning a six months' picnic, 
common enough in those nomadic days, and would 
soon return. 

Thus began this odyssey of two years. The party 
consisted of M. and Mme. Coillard and their niece, 
Elise Coillard (a girl of fourteen or fifteen) ; four evan- 
gelists, Azael, Aaron, Andreas, and Asser, with their 
families ; and four leaders and drivers, namely, Fono, 
Bushman, Eleazar, and Khosana. Altogether there were 
four women, seven men, five little children, and five 
young unmarried men, besides the three Coillards, 
twenty-seven in all. 

Eleazar, Khosana, and Bushman were Christians and 
volunteers, and all three were destined to lay down their 
lives in opening up the way. But this was an issue 
which neither they nor any one about them thought 
of, except the leaders. 

Before very long M. Coillard began to realise that 
the expedition had been undertaken far too light- 
heartedly, on the strength of the native explorers' 
assurances. They were able and devoted, but it was 
impossible they should have the same sense of respon- 
sibility as a white man in like circumstances. It became 



1877] MR. BURGERS' GOVERNMENT 229 



evident that they had fixed their attention too much on 
what was outward and visible, the line of route, food 
supplies, and fountains : and what they did not see, 
namely, the real ownership of the Banyai country and 
the real reason why its inhabitants wanted missionaries, 
had escaped them altogether. In the same way they 
had enlarged too much on the material benefits of 
Christianity in their interviews with the Banyai chiefs, 
and the latter, in their disappointment at not getting 
what they expected, wreaked their resentment on the 
whole party in a way that nearly cost them their lives. 
It is true that the heathen never want missionaries 
except for material benefits ; but men like Moshesh and 
Lewanika desired enlightenment and civilisation. The 
Banyai chiefs were on a lower level, and only coveted 
powder, guns, and blankets. 

At first, however, all went well. Every one was full 
of zeal and good humour. At Pretoria they witnessed 
the hoisting of the British flag on the Queen's Birthday, 
amid pouring rain, a fete that failed. 

Journal of Mme. Coillard: — 

"I said to a young Boer, ' What do you think of 
that ? ' pointing to the [British] camp. ' What do I 
think of it ? Nothing. It is only a mouthful before 
breakfast for us Boers if we chose to turn them out, 
but we don't choose to chase back the soldiers; we 
are glad they should turn out Burgers' Government.' " 

The scorn felt by the truly patriotic Transvaalers for 
Mr. Burgers' Government can be understood from the 
next instalment of Mme. Coillard's journal, telling how 
they met the gentleman who had actually ordered 
M. Dieterlen's arrest. He had been head of the Exe- 



230 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



cutive when Mr. Burgers was away during the war 
with Seccocoeni in 1875-6. They were cordially received 
by Sir Theophilus Shepstone (as he had now become), 
whom they had not seen since leaving Natal in 1868. 
Mme. Coillard wrote (Journal, May, 1877) :— 

"We found our dear old friend on the verandah just 
after lunch, seated with a crowd . . . officers and his 
staff : he received us most cordially. ' What are you 
doing here ! What is your business in Pretoria ? ' On 
his repeating these questions, I said rather archly, ' May 
I take the liberty of asking what you are doing in 
Pretoria?' This . . . caused a hearty laugh. 

. . He invited us inside and we spoke of our mission 
to the Banyai and all the perils attending it : we spoke 
of the treatment which the expedition had received last 
year, of their imprisonment, and of their having to pay 
£16 for their board and expenses ; of the new turn of 
affairs, &c, &c. ... As we went out, Mr. Shepstone 
said to Frank, ' I let you pass because you are not 
going to take my friend here to the Banyai for good : 
had it been otherwise, I would have put you in prison, 
only I would not have charged so much for the 
board ! ' . . . 

"F. said, 'Would his Excellency allow our people 
{i.e., the native helpers) to salute him?' . . . But the 
sentry would not allow them to pass the gates. He 
said, ' Let me go to them,' . . . and spoke so kindly to 
them. We then left, saying, ' He is not a bit changed : 
he is still Mr. Shepstone of old.' 

' ' From this very pleasant visit we went to the Market 
Square ; we said that we must see that strange sight, 
Her Majesty's regimental band playing for the pleasure 
of the Boer population of a Saturday. . . . By and by, 
Mr. Henderson came up, and then another of our friends, 



1877] 



PRETORIA 



231 



till we had a little group. Among these came Mr. , 

the former State Secretary, a renegade Dutch minister. 
He was very smart on this 19th of May — white kid 
gloves, a satin felt hat, and spotless broadcloth ; every- 
thing shone, and his eyeglass gave him a very smart and 
knowing appearance. He was gay, too, and facetious, for 
he had just done Her Majesty's Government the honour 
to accept a place in its midst. F. was introduced to him, 
and had a long and animated discussion with him about 
his treatment of our Mission party last year ; all this I 
listened to attentively, and did not lose a word as I 

chatted with Mr. Henderson. Then Mr. , turning 

round, was introduced to me. I am sure he did not 
hear my name, for he said in a jaunty style, ' Oh, 
Madam, you are on a visit to Pretoria ! You must 
swear to the Queen before you leave ! ' I replied, ' I 
am a subject of the Queen, and so won't find it a hard 
task to swear to her to-day, especially under the present 
circumstances.' He laughed and said, £ That's right, 
you will follow my example ; I have gone over this 
morning to her ranks, and am now in the Council of 
Mr. Shepstone.' Though I was already aware of the 
fact, I said, ' I think it is the most advantageous thing 
you could have done for your own interests, sir; as for 
ours, it is a guarantee that you will not this year treat 
our Mission party as you did last year.' A smile passed 

over those who stood by. Mr. looked confused, and 

involuntarily looked from me to Frank, and then only it 
seemed he knew who I was. I felt so indignant and 
also such a contempt for the man, that I could say 
almost anything to him." . . . 

A few days later, Mr. related the whole story to 

some mutual friends with perfect good humour, adding, 
" Those French missionaries are one too many for me " 



232 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



— the overpowering unit being apparently Mme. Coillard 
herself. 

" On Monday we went to town, . . . and bent our 
steps direct to the Dutch Parsonage. We knew nothing 
of the minister, not even his name ; we asked it on the 
road, and truly we were directed of the Lord in the 
matter of this visit. It is impossible to describe 
the pleasure we derived from the intercourse we had 
with dear Mr. and Mrs. Bosman or the sweet sympathy 
which drew us to them. In the afternoon of the same 
day they called on us, and we loved them still more. ... 
Wednesday we spent at Mr. Bosnian's and enjoyed 
very much indeed. How could I have missed mention- 
ing the great event of Monday evening, which was an 
invitation to dine at Government House, which F. 
accepted. . . , From the dinner F. returned at 11 p.m. 
I saw immediately by his face that he had greatly 
enjoyed himself. There were forty- two guests, but F. 
was the honoured one ; he sat at Sir T. Shepstone's 
right hand, he asked the blessing, and after dinner 
Sir T. S. talked to him all the evening." 

This invitation to an official banquet for the Queen's 
Birthday was not solely a mark of private friendship 
on the part of Sir T. Shepstone, though that element 
was not absent. It was deliberately intended to declare 
the attitude of the new Government to Christian 
missions and to confer a mark of public honour upon 
the one that had been publicly insulted the previous 
year in the same place. Many of the leading Dutch 
came to express their hearty regret for the action of the 
late Government, and later events showed the sincerity 
of these apologies. They left Pretoria overwhelmed with 
practical tokens of kindness from the Kev. and Mrs. 



1877] 



SECCOCOENI 



233 



Bosman. M. Coillard wrote: ''They are in earnest, 
and we love them very much." 

Journal F. C. 

"In the Bush veld we met an old Boer, a certain 
Erasmus : a real patriarch. . . . 1 1 am the friend of 
Seccocoeni,' he said, ' it is my name among the natives. 
I do not like the English Government for having taken 
our country, but I bless it for having got rid of Burgers. 
. . . Do you know,' he added, ' that he is a spiritist ? 
He does not believe in Jesus Christ, but he believes in 
spirits. His declaration of war was the most iniquitous 
thing. Seccocoeni's people had done nothing to him. 
And what is more, all the Boers, myself included, who 
were pasturing their cattle in his country, learnt from 
him first that Burgers had already declared war.' . . . 
He went a bit of the way with me, after giving Fono 
a quantity of milk. 

"Another Boer . . . accosted Eleazar [the catechist] . 
* So you're going to evangelise the Banyai ? ' 

"'Yes, Mynheer.' 

"'And do you think they will be converted and 
believe ? ' 

" ' Certainly, as I have believed.' 

" ' Yes, but they are quite different from you ; they are 
savages, heathen, perfectly heathen.' 

" ' Mynheer, I was just like them, not one bit better ; 
and yet I am a Christian.' " 

As far as the Limpopo, the expedition was loaded with 
kindness by the many Boers they met, and they were 
often asked to conduct services, which these people 
attended with their native servants. 



234 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

Journal of Mme. Coillard : — 

"At Marabastadt we found some dear, warm-hearted 
native Christians : they belong to the flock of M. 
Hofmeyr. . . . We guessed what M. Hofmeyr must 
be by seeing them. . . . We arrived late at night, but 
the people were overjoyed to see us. Some women 
called us into a house, and after I was seated they sat 
on the ground, and with beaming eyes one exclaimed, 
' How wonderful is the love of Jesus in the soul ! It 
makes me weep for joy to see you, though I do not know 
you in the flesh at all.' She is the wife of the catechist. 
In the morning she brought me a large fresh ham. On 
Friday, at midday, we came in sight of the station of 
Geodgedacht, that of Mr. Hofmeyr of the Dutch 
Keformed Church. . . . We saw a lovely, gentle-looking 
person standing at the door ; it was Mrs. H. Their 
house and all its belongings is one of the simplest and 
most homely I have ever seen, but nobody cares. ' It 
is for the Lord.' The name of Jesus is ever on her lips, 
and every one she meets is measured by the measure of 
love they bear to Him who is truly her All. You have 
no idea how kind people have been to us, . . . they 
offered us no end of things [till] I firmly refused. If 
I lived so very far away, I don't know that I would be 
so generous." 

From Geodgedacht they made a detour to Valdezia, 
the station of the Swiss Mission, to spend Sunday with 
their friends, MM. Creux and Berthoud. The Gwambas 
seemed to be a tribe singularly open to Gospel teaching, 
for in the two years they had been there several men 
and women had been converted who were baptized on 
this occasion. Mr. Hofmeyr lent them some of the best 
members of his Church, who had volunteered to act 
as guides. 



1877] 



VALDEZ1A 



235 



These happy visits to Geodgedacht and Valdezia ended, 
the Limpopo or Crocodile River had to be crossed ; and 
then the adventures began. Their direction (for there 
was no road) lay among rivers and thickets, through 
which a way had to be cleared with hatchets. Even 
before they reached Pretoria they had had to part from 
many things which, as Mme. Coillard said, "I thought 
necessary : our folding table and chairs and some cases 
with all my extra provision of clothes for the winter," 
but now she wrote, "We seem to have nothing of our 
own, for we don't know what we may be called from day 
to day to give up." 

It was the dry season, and often they could find no 
water ; the rivers were bogs, in which the waggons stuck ; 
the country was filled with game seeking the few 
pools ; the lions and jackals came after them and 
prowled around the camp night after night. Leopards 
beset and attacked them in broad daylight. The few 
goats on which the party depended for the children's 
milk were stolen by the Makalaka. 

Mme. Coillard to her Family: — 

" "We must be ready to take joyfully the spoiling of our 
goods for Christ's sake, yet it is hard to realise that it is 
for His sake, indeed, when we see before us those wild 
naked black figures, who live by plunder, and dread the 
sight of their fellow creatures. . . . We have suffered 
very much from the heat and fatigue all these days — 
I may add also from want of sleep, for we never know 
what a good night's rest is. Last night the dogs barked 
the whole time at a lion and some wolves (jackals). The 
former began to trouble us long before bedtime ; he 
nearly caught Andrea's dog, but what he really wanted 
was an ox : our people, too, were awake all the night 
firing and urging on the dogs to bark ; the Boer hunter 



236 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



fired seven times. Hitherto we have followed the half- 
made road which these people traced to find game ; 
to-day (August 9th, Michael's Fountain) we must quit 
it, and find one for ourselves." 

One day M. Coillard walked with his niece to the top 
of a hill to see how the land lay before them. " But 
while we were looking at the panorama before us, Aaron 
said, softly touching my arm, 'Master, a tiger! ' [leopard]. 
There it was, indeed, pricking its ears, then lowering its 
head, like a cat preparing to spring. ' Let us go,' I said 
to Elise. ' Why, uncle ? ' 'I will tell you in a minute. 
Come.' We descended the hill, to her great regret : she 
wanted to see the tiger. The men rushed up with guns 
and dogs, but the tiger had missed his stroke and we 
missed ours." 

After crossing the Limpopo Eiver, the country they 
traversed was exquisitely beautiful : mountainous and 
well- wooded, shady rivers, and glades full of antelopes ; 
the great candelabra euphorbias crowning the castellated 
rocks. " But surely, aunt," said Elise, " these parks 
must be kept up by some one ! " The supposed owner 
of these parks, however, had not provided them with 
paths, not even with a cattle track. 

Although they had Baines' map to direct them in a 
general way, it was often impossible for the waggons to 
follow it in detail, and between the Nguanetsi River and 
the Bohoa Mountain (the highest in those parts) they 
had nothing but the compass to guide them through 
dense forest, or prairie grass meeting over their heads. 
Mme. Coillard wrote : " Frank has had a most dreadful 
week of it. He is never in the waggon ; he is either 
cutting a way, hatchet in hand, or else mounting hills 
with Simone, trying to thread the way by which we must 
pass through these interminable valleys." 



1877] COMMISSARIAT TROUBLES 237 



All through this journey one figure fills the background, 
that of Mme. Coillard, providing for every want, fore- 
seeing every emergency. Their direction at one juncture 
lying through a pathless forest, " we had a new consul- 
tation with the Boer hunter and our principal men. 
Christina took part in it. She has a power of judgment 
worth ten men." When all were exhausted, after drag- 
ging the waggon through a dry river-bed, she it was who 
produced bottle after bottle of cold tea, a provision she 
had made at the last good fountain. " Oh ! " cried the 
poor men crowding round her, " you are our mother ; you 
save our lives." Again, she is seen cutting out garments 
for the catechists' wives to sew, tending their sick chil- 
dren, and the whole time carrying on her niece's education 
as quietly and almost as thoroughly as if in a Parisian 
schoolroom ; classifying plants and writing copious 
journals ; or surrounded by painted savages armed to 
the teeth, watching to steal everything they could lay 
hands upon, and bargaining with her for the food 
they brought. This was a weary duty, for it was 
necessary to husband the slender resources the Basuto 
Churches had provided out of their poverty (as compared 
with Europeans), and the catechists did not like that at 
all. When the Banyai said, " See how destitute we are ; 
you have a whole waggon full of goods, and you grudge 
us a few beads," the Basutos wanted to figure as bene- 
factors and shower upon them whatever they asked, so as 
to win the way to their hearts. 

It required no little generalship to keep every one up 
to the mark, especially with so many women and children. 
From the first M. and Mme. Coillard had decided that to 
avoid expense and misunderstanding, they and their ser- 
vants would fare alike with the catechists and their 
families, instead of having separate cooking. Needless 
to say, they encountered the same difficulties as all other 



238 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



commissariat officers, from Moses onwards. But if they 
had no manna, Providences as perfect waited on their 
needs ; and if the murarurers did not suffer the summary 
judgments that fell on the Israelites, it was that their 
leaders had been shown " a more excellent way." 

One great trouble was the early start to avoid the heat 
of the day. "It is dreadful to travel with people who 
hate sleep," said one poor paterfamilias, tumbling up 
when the bugle sounded long before dawn. The motto 
of the Expedition had to be translated into reality — 
" Your bodies a living sacrifice.'" 

M. Coillard went to the root of the matter on one of 
these first Sundays. 

" We considered the Temptation of the Saviour, laying 
special stress on the fact that Satan, taking advantage of 
our circumstances, always seeks the weakest point. He 
saw that Jesus was hungry ; then he takes advantage of 
our position. Satan dared to attack Jesus, whom he 
knew to be the Son of God, God Himself, because he 
knew Jesus had a great work to accomplish, and that 
made him mad with rage. "We are going forth to the 
conquest of his kingdom, of which he knows the weak- 
nesses and miseries : will he have any more respect to us?" 

They soon found that in Banyailand and among the 
Mashonas there was no supreme chief, as in Basutoland, 
but a number of petty chiefs, who each dwelt separate 
on his mountain, at the mercy of the Matabele. These 
mountains were formed of colossal crags, the soft, sandy 
soil in which they were originally embedded having been 
gradually washed away by the rains, leaving huge 
interstices. Consequently every citadel was a miniature 
Gibraltar, full of secret passages and hidden rock- 
chambers, in which the poor people took refuge with 



1877] 



THE BANYAI 



239 



their cattle from their enemies. They were a slavish 
and cowardly crew. Instead of uniting forces and boldly 
repelling the Matabele, they preferred each to keep his 
independence, hiding in these eyries when attacked, 
whence they maintained a futile defensive warfare. 
They had old guns that had passed from hand to hand 
all over Africa till they were useless ; they contrived to 
make their own powder, which was highly explosive, but 
had no propelling power, partly because, having no lead, 
they made bullets of iron. The Matabele, before whom 
they grovelled, raided them pitilessly. The Banyai had 
not even the courage and skill to hunt game, but dug pits 
for the antelopes, covered by a few branches, into which 
they fell and were transfixed on spiked stakes at the 
bottom. The party narrowly missed falling into one 
of these. 

When once they discovered they need not fear violence 
from the caravan, their one idea was to make all they 
could out of it and give nothing in exchange. 

The first of the chiefs who had invited them into the 
country and promised them hospitality was Masonda, 
whose place they reached on August 31, 1877. It was 
a long and narrow valley closed in by rocky, wooded 
hills, not far from the Zimbabwe ruins, a perfect paradise 
of beauty, and densely peopled. The moment the waggon 
entered it, though not a creature had previously been 
visible, it seemed as if every rock and bush had started 
into life. While the population swarmed inquisitively 
round them, all armed with axes, knives, and bows and 
arrows, the chiefs at first sent no greetings, and their 
reception altogether was so rude and unceremonious that 
the party did not know what to make of it. They said 
to themselves, " If only the Churches who sent us could 
have seen how the Banyai received us ! " Towards 
evening, however, the chief's nephew appeared, a repul- 



240 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



sive individual, undersized, filthy, one-eyed, disfigured by 
small-pox, with a band of yellow buttons on his forehead 
(his insignia of nobility) , and a few rags of fur round his 
waist. He presented an ox, with a polite message from 
his liege-lord. Mr. Hofmeyr's guides were suspicious. 
They said, " This chief has a very bad reputation ; we 
advise that the ox should not be slaughtered." 

Immediately Masonda received the return present (a 
handsome blanket), he came to the camp himself. He 
proved to be above the average of Banyai chiefs : he was 
full of intelligent questions about the construction of the 
waggons, and declared he had never had such a treat in 
his life as the cup of sugared coffee they offered him. 
After they had promised to visit his fortress next day 
(Saturday) he left them. Every one was delighted with 
him ; even the guides renounced their doubts, and the 
" ox of welcome " was killed. 

Next day, however, Simone of Geodgedacht again had 
misgivings, and begged M. Coillard not to go up the 
mountain ; he felt sure it was not safe. 

M. Coillard considered it was an act of duty and 
courtesy to go, and his wife accompanied him. The 
thought of serious danger seemed to them out of the 
question. They had spent half their lives among African 
natives — Basutos, Zulus, Bechuanas, and Korannas — and 
though they had often had disagreements, never once had 
they experienced ill-usage or violence. By every South 
African code the persons of guests and ambassadors were 
sacred and inviolable, and they anticipated nothing worse 
than rudeness. This they met with. The chief did not 
appear. They were received by his sister Katse, a lady 
whose conscious dignity was independent of outward aid, 
and who attached herself so persistently to Mme. Coillard 
that they were all amused. She took her visitor's arm, 
led her all about, and showed her where to place her feet 



1877] MASONDAS CRAG 241 



on the trackless crags, kindly tucking her long skirt out 
of the way of the bushes. 

Tired of waiting in the burning sun, they at last pro- 
posed to go, but they were told " the chief was just 
coming," and were led into a large cavern full of smoke, 
humanity, and pots of beer. For the sake of air, Mme. 
Coillard sat down near the entrance, and it was for- 
tunate she did so. Such a crowd gathered around that 
the evangelists were frightened. "We are blocked in," 
they said. M. Coillard at once forced a way out, and 
they were about to leave, when the one-eyed nephew 
appeared (still wearing the same diabolical scowl, and 
very little else) and proposed to do the honours of his 
" town." Out of politeness M. Coillard consented, and 
followed his hosts, who were officiously leading his wife 
by the hand. Suddenly he perceived that they were 
heading straight for a round, slippery rock overhanging a 
precipice. He called and sprang forward, but before he 
could stop them the Banyai had turned and led them 
down the face of the cliff with the agility of monkeys, 
requiring them every now and then to stop and admire 
the glories of their abode. "Masonda," they said, "is 
very vexed not to see you ; he. has something in his heart 
to tell you. He will come himself." Katse refused the 
piece of stuff Mme. Coillard offered her : "it was un- 
worthy of the attentions she had paid her guest ; she had 
accompanied her everywhere." 

Sunday passed quietly. Late in the evening Masonda 
came and demanded powder and caps : that was what he 
" had in his heart." M. Coillard explained that this was 
a mission of peace, and that he had no powder to give or 
sell. He offered instead a beautiful American hatchet, 
"Let the white man keep his axe and his baggage; 
powder is what I want." This had to be refused. After 
dark they suddenly found themselves surrounded in their 

17 



242 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



camp by armed natives, and the chief, reappearing, de- 
manded a dog. The one shown him was thin, he said, 
and did not please him. He was offered two puppies, 
but refused both. " I will come again to-morrow," he 
said in a menacing tone. " Yes, but remember we start 
early." "You won't go before I have seen you!" he 
replied. 

From their tent they watched the torchlight procession 
wind up the precipices to the top of the mountain, and 
were filled with vague apprehensions. This was on 
Sunday night. 

Next day, at dawn, they inspanned. Instantly the 
whole village ran down to them, the women with food 
to sell, the men with their spears, knives, battle-axes, 
and arrows. The chief sat on a rock foaming with rage. 
" Blankets, powder, a dog," he kept shouting. M. Coil- 
lard replied, " The dog is here, and you can take it : I 
have given you a blanket. As for powder, you will never 
get any from me, so it is no use asking for it. If you 
will not have that dog, choose an ox." He chose the 
best. 

The others, which were weak from having been yoked 
before grazing, drew the waggons slowly through the 
long gorge, escorted by troops of armed men bent on 
plunder. Fresh bands continually met and joined them. 
In the very narrowest place, where it seemed impossible 
to pass between two walls of rock divided only by a 
mud-hole, the hindmost waggon stuck. The oxen were 
unyoked at once. In the midst of the tumult this 
aroused, Mme. Coillard and her young niece sat down 
under a tree with their sewing. A young man came 
behind the tree and began brandishing an axe a few 
inches from their heads. M. Coillard requested a chief 
to call his people away from such close quarters. " Why 
should I?" he replied rudely ; " is it not our country, our 



1877] MASONDAS ATTACK 243 



tree, and our shade ? If you don't like us near, let these 
women get out of the way ; we won't." The oxen having 
grazed for several hours, were now brought back. 

Seeing the principal waggon still immoveable, the 
hordes of natives closed in upon them, led by the chief 
in person. The tumult rose higher and higher every 
moment. The women were all assembled in another 
waggon where Mme. Coillard prayed and eDcouraged 
them, while the men tried to yoke up, and M. Coillard 
to ward off the threatened attack by every means short of 
violence. Mme. Coillard's diary says, "All this time 
Frank was perfectly calm, and moving about as if nothing 
particular were happening." 

Desperate, the poor Basutos seized their guns and ran 
to defend their families. 

" That exasperated Masonda, and I expected every 
moment to receive a blow from an axe on my head. If I 
was aware of the danger, I was aware also of the presence 
of God, and I felt that any emotion or weakness on my 
part would prove our perdition. 

" Christina could not rest, seeing me thus exposed; she 
flew to me like an angel with a message. ' Think,' she 
said, at the worst moment of the struggle, ' that this day 
is a great day in heaven ! ' 

" I retired to pray for an instant, then ran ... to stop 
the pillage which had already begun. At the sight of me 
these cowards fell back. A tall man, a prophet by trade, 
and playing the part of court fool, stood at the door of 
the waggon crying, ' And I, the Son of Molimo (God), I 
want a suit, and I will have it.' With that he snatched 
some towels. All this time, Fono, brave boy, sat 
stoically on the box, while Eleazar and Bushman tried to 
inspan. Asser and Azael came up, lips white, and guns 
on shoulder. ' I beg of you, my brothers,' I said, ' put 



244 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



away your guns. Would you . . . shed the blood of 
those you have come to teach ? I implore you not to 
forget what you are ! ' ' Yes, sir, but men should die 
like men.' ' No, a man should die like a Christian first ; 
like a martyr, if need be. Courage ! " Those with us are 
more than all they that be with them." ' " 

The first shot fired would have meant a general 
massacre. 

The catechists laid down their arms reluctantly. 
" The fear or rather the shame of seeing their wives so 
much braver than themselves overcame them," says M. 
Coillard. But they implored him as "their father" to 
give Masonda a bag of powder, "to save our children's 
lives." He hesitated. They had a small case, just 
enough for themselves to shoot game : it lay on the 
ground beside the waggon, for the Banyai had actually 
got hold of it and pulled it out. Fortunately they did 
not know its contents, but they were about to ascertain 
them by breaking the lid with their hatchets, a proceed- 
ing which would have saved them all further trouble in 
destroying the waggon and its occupants. Should he, 
or should he not consent to this concession ? No ! To 
go back upon his word would be a proof of weakness 
which would only compromise them further. 

The three teams had been harnessed to the waggon 
and the drivers at his orders cried "Trek," but their 
trembling voices betrayed too much emotion to impose 
upon the oxen. Ferocious cries of joy resounded on all 
sides. The Banyai broke into two bands : one closed 
round them ; the other carried off all the cattle they 
could seize, seventeen in all. " The night is falling," 
they cried, " and you are in our hands. We will have 
your blood and everything else you possess, and we shall 
see if your God will deliver you." 



1877] MALIANKOMBE 245 



The sun was touching the horizon. If they could not 
escape before the sudden darkness of the tropics fell, 
nothing could save them. M. Coillard shouted " Trek " : 
the team, terrified by the yells around them, made a final 
struggle, and, as if by a miracle, the waggon moved. The 
Banyai defeated their own ends ; for it was their shout 
of triumph which so frightened the oxen that they 
struggled out of the hole. 

Summoned by Masonda to meet him in the forest, 
M. Coillard refused, and sent the chief the following 
message : " Understand that these oxen are not my pro- 
perty, but that of God Whom we serve, and Who has 
delivered us. Beware of slaughtering them, tend them 
well; and one day it will not be I who will send for 
them, but you who will bring them back to me, every 
one." 

He uttered these words, as he afterwards said, on an 
impulse, scarcely knowing why. Three weeks later, 
Lo Bengula's messengers ordered Masonda, as the vassal 
of the Matabele chief, to restore them at once (which he 
did), and not to presume to plunder travellers himself as 
that was Lo Bengula's exclusive privilege. They were 
not captured again. 

There were still thirty oxen left among the three 
waggons, and by yoking all to each in turn they managed 
next morning to cross the river, which formed Masonda' s 
frontier. Then they were out of danger, but the tribes- 
men had followed them all through a moonless night, and 
the travellers had seen their camp fires twinkling and 
heard their clicking tongues discussing the events of the 
day. 

Maliankombe, of Nyanikoe, the next chief they came 
to, and the second who had invited them, received them 
better, but still rather suspiciously. Though their pro- 
visions were exhausted, nobody brought anything to sell 



246 COILLABJD OF THE ZAMBESI 



for some days, but at last the market was opened. It 
was then they learned that Masonda had formed a regular 
plot to entrap them, so that his people might kill them 
and take the plunder in the same way as he had already 
massacred a hunting party shortly before. " I will entice 
them," he had said, "but you will be afraid of them," 
and so it proved. " The fear of you and the dread of you 
shall be upon all the inhabitants of the land." 

They had left Masonda's place earlier than he expected 
and, in consequence, all his people had not arrived. That 
alone had saved them. But why were they not killed, 
when they were so enormously outnumbered, a dozen 
unarmed men hampered by women and children? To 
that question they could give but one answer, " The angel 
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him 
and delivereth them." 

If Maliankombe did not plunder them, he fleeced them, 
as did his people. " The cows have given very little milk 
to-day, but you are rich," was a typical speech. 

This man's manners were not equal to Masonda's. 
Being offered a cup of coffee, he waxed indignant. " A 
cup, indeed, for a great chief like him : a large jugful was 
the least they could offer him." When they gave him a 
blanket he said he had an elder brother, Sibi, who was 
the real chief, and who must have a present too. 

"Where is this Sibi," asked M. Coillard, "we have 
never set eyes on him yet ? " 

The interpreter got in a rage. " What have you got to 
do with that chief ? Maliankombe is the chief who con- 
cerns you. Sibi never comes out ; he is simply a chief 
who eats." For the privilege of looking at Sibi — who, 
sure enough, was eating at the time — they were expected 
to pay handsomely in blankets, and so with everything 
else. 

It is in the details of his intercourse with these chiefs 



1877] MARKET OVERT 



247 



that M. Coillard's tact manifests itself. He stood calmly 
on his rights, kept them up to their promises, refused to be 
imposed upon or frightened into anything, yet he always 
knew how to prevent a rupture by some trifling but 
opportune speech or gift. 

Jouenal CO.: — 

" We have had crowds of people to sell milk and meal 
and thlubos : oh, how they squabble and talk and scream 
about the price ! It is quite deafening. I never saw 
heathen Basutos go on as they do ; they don't accept a 
string of beads without the approbation of about fifty 
people. ... A trial from which we suffer daily beyond 
description is the publicity in which we live from the 
crowd of people who sit for hours, and often for the 
whole day, in hopes of selling something, . . . and 
scream and dispute and argue so noisily that it is 
impossible to stay in bed, however ill one feels." 

Mme. Coillard had a severe attack of sunstroke, during 
which she became unconscious. "I reproached myself 
for the sting of my heart as I opened my eyes once more 
on the light of this world. I did not till then realise how 
very unutterably weary I had become, and how little the 
world and its pleasures found a response any more in my 
heart. But here I am still below, still fixed to my ap- 
pointed task, still a prisoner in the body and still an exile 
from home. If that is to be my lot for a season, still I do 
beg the Lord to restore my bodily health so that I may 
honestly and faithfully serve Him." 

From the effects of this sunstroke Mme. Coillard never 
entirely recovered : she suffered terribly from her head to 
the end of her life. 



248 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



To her Eelatives : — 

" September 16, 1877. 
" One trouble F. has had ever since we came here is 
how to send to the Matabele chief to let him know that 
we are here. The Banyai pay tribute to the Matabele, and 
we cannot live here without their consent ; we must also 
do homage to Lo Bengula. Yesterday forenoon I was 
lying in the waggon (the thermometer was 92°), I felt 
quite overcome when I heard a loud voice behind and saw 
a native leap over the fence which we have had put round 
our camp to keep our importunate visitors off, who come 
by hundreds before daybreak and only leave after sunset. 
I saw in a moment, by the polished ring this man had on 
the top of his head, that he was none other than a 
Matabele warrior. He gesticulated and shouted, 1 Here I 
am, I have arrived at last. How dare you come here 
without our consent ? Lo Bengula has sent me to claim 
tribute and to tell you Masonda did well to despoil you, 
for you have no business here unknown to us.' F. put 
him out of our enclosure, and told him if he had any just 
claims they would be listened to, but there must be no 
noise. We see that this man has right on his side, but 
that he tried to frighten us by exaggerating. We think 
he is one of Lo Bengula's numerous spies, but we wish to 
have to do with the chief, not with each one of his sub- 
ordinates, and we fear that we must ourselves go to 
Inyati before matters can be arranged." 

This induna proved to have come at the head of sixty 
warriors. The troop divided into two parts. One part 
took Asser and Khosana with a handsome present to 
Inyati to ask Lo Bengula's permission for the establish- 
ment of the mission among the Banyai. The other 
took Aaron and Eleazar to Masonda' s to demand on 
Lo Bengula's part the rest of the cattle and plunder he 




A MATABELE WITCH-DOCTOR. 

[To face p. 248. 



1877] IDEAS OF THE BANYAI 249 



had taken. M. Coillard offered to go to Inyati, but it was 
thought best for him to stay at Nyanikoe, as, if he once 
left, all hope of the mission's settling there would 
probably vanish for ever. So they waited for two and a 
half dreary months. It was an unhealthy place, and very 
little could be done till they knew the language. Mme. 
Coillard fell ill, and her husband for over a fortnight was 
nearly blinded by ophthalmia. However, he worked at 
various books he was writing for the Basutos — the Psalms 
in metre, a Church history, and Scripture history, besides 
keeping copious diaries. 

The Banyai, so insolent to the white men, were abject 
towards the Matabele. At the first word of their ap- 
proach they had ceased field work for days, only grazed 
their cattle by night and close to the foot of the mountain, 
and hid all day in the clefts and caves. 

The troop returned safely from Masonda's with the rest 
of the stolen goods, cattle and all, and with still fuller 
details of Masonda's plot. Katse and the One-eyed had 
been instructed to throw " the white man's wife and 
daughter " over the precipice and himself after them, and 
then to massacre all their people. " And why did we not 
do it?" they asked, "then we should not have had all these 
worries with you Matabele." They permitted them- 
selves this insolence to their masters because the detach- 
ment was such a small one. The Matabele themselves 
were astounded that the whole party had not perished. 
" If you escaped Masonda it is a miracle," they said. 
" Your Jesus is almighty." 

The Banyai were and are a very industrial people, they 
had immense tracts of land under cultivation, and a far 
greater variety of foods (cereals and other) than the 
Coillards had seen in any native tribe. Intellectually, 
they were not developed. They had a curious method of 
counting. They reckoned by tens, with grains of corn, 



250 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



putting each ten aside and beginning again. When three 
tens were complete (thirty), they said : " The moon is 
dead, another rises." Then the tens began again, and at 
the end of three tens, " Two moons are dead, the third 
rises," and so on. They told M. Coillard that they used 
to have a day of rest, but the custom of observing it had 
dropped. He told them the days of the week. " "What ! " 
said the chief, " do you work six days and rest the 
seventh? Then what do you do with the other three 
days that make up the ten ? " 

It is odd to find the Banyai and the Terrorists of 
France at one as to the week of ten days. 

M. Coillard had lost no time before getting to work. 
He dug a large reservoir in a marshy place, where they 
could bathe, and for the Banyai a good deep fountain. 
This did not please the people, who accused him of 
stealing their water. Within a week after the first hut 
was built, he had organised the school and set the 
catechists to teach in it, and had made a small vocabulary 
of the language, to which he added day by day. The 
interpreter, however, was very little help. " How does 
one say 'my house' in Senyai ? " The interpreter told 
him. "Well then, how does one say ' thy house'?" 
"Sir, I have no house. I have no wife, no home!" 
M. Coillard then tried to relate the story of the Prodigal 
Son. " How does one say ' younger brother ' ? " This was 
a poser. " Masendike and Pafudi, for instance. Masen- 
dike is the elder, what is Pafudi?" "Oh, Mtoko." 
" Very well then, the younger son, Mtoko, gathered all 
together, went into a far country, and there wasted his 
substance with riotous living." " How dare you tell such 
lies about Pafudi? He never did such wicked things in his 
life ! " In spite of these and other obstacles the language 
was gradually learnt, and M. Coillard was able to teach 
them to say, in words they really understood, the verse, 



1877] THE MATABELE IMPI 251 



" God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten 
Son." 

He often discussed it with Maliankombe, who, how- 
ever, could not take it in. " If God loves us, why does 
He let us be scourged by the Matabele? " he asked. " Can 
He deliver us from the Matabele ? They are just going to 
arrive, and they may kill both you and me : are you not 
afraid of them as we are ? " 

" Not at all. God is our Father, and He is all-power- 
ful, and He loves us. We were not afraid when we were 
in Masonda's hands, and we shall not be afraid in the 
hands of the Matabele." 

" Can there be any who do not fear the Matabele?" 
A second regiment of the latter arrived on October 20th. 
They camped on the mountain and summoned M. Coillard 
to meet them. He refused to go. "I am at my camp," 
he said, " if they have a message for me, let them come 
to me." The envoy returned, scarcely daring to report 
such words ; and the chief, Maliankombe, came himself, 
imploring his guest and friend to comply with the sum- 
mons. " They are our masters, they expect every one to 
obey them." M. Coillard replied that the Matabele had 
to obey their own king, and if he had charged them with 
a message they were bound to deliver it. In due time 
the induna presented himself at the waggon. He and his 
men stood outside the stockade and shouted, " Come out 
when we tell you, or we will kill your children and treat 
you worse than Masonda did. We cleave the heads of 
those who do not respect us." 

Invited inside, he informed them that Lo Bengula 
required their presence at Inyati. " Indeed, and how am 
I to know you really come from the chief ? Where are 
my messengers whom I sent with my homage to him ? " 
The induna, after much parley, saw he must justify 
himself, and said he would wait till Asser and Khosana 



252 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



were brought back, which was not till the 22nd of 
November. 

Asser made it quite clear that Lo Bengula would be 
satisfied with nothing short of seeing the whole party. 
The Matabele chief was so furious at their entering his 
territories, and especially by a new road, a bach door, that 
he had never even received the embassy, nor would he 
accept their messages and presents. The captives made 
no further difficulties. Eesistance, indeed, would have 
been hopeless, since 150 warriors had come to fetch them. 

The work had to be abandoned, just as the people had 
come to trust them. There were many regrets, but only 
one act of disinterested kindness — a big pot of yams sent 
by an old woman. When M. Coillard wanted to pay her 
with beads, she said, 4 'No, it is a present I offer to the 
men of God. I live a long way off and I am old, but the 
moment I heard that men of God had arrived here my 
heart rejoiced. The jug is for their water ; if they do not 
like the yams, I have rice and corn, and will bring them 
instead." M. Coillard wrote : "Her conduct formed such 
a strange contrast with that of the vultures around us. 
. . . Surely God will remember this poor woman, who, 
in spite of her ignorance, has denied herself to show 
kindness to His servants." 

The Banyai are now being evangelised by the Dutch 
Mission of the Cape, as an extension of the work begun 
by Mr. Hofmeyr and now carried on by his sons. 

The mission party had no longer any illusions. They 
hardly expected to leave Bulawayo alive ; and Malian- 
kombe told them that if the Matabele did not murder 
them on the road they would certainly do so on their 
arrival. They were prisoners, and they were made to 
feel it. They had to travel night and day through rivers 
and forests, over mountains, marshes, and rocks, straight 
across country, not even by the cattle path. 



1877] CARRIED CAPTIVE 



253 



Their captor pointed to a high mountain covered with 
huts, and remarked casually, "There is nobody there 
now ; we killed them all." " And why ? " "Oh, because 
they had no ears ; they did not give us food when we went 
to them, so we scaled the crag in the night and slaughtered 
them all." 

They were also told that Lo Bengula had lately lost 
his favourite wife, a young girl — of course through sor- 
cery. In consequence, the witch-doctor had indicated 
several villages as the sources of the spell, and all their 
inhabitants had been put to death — men, women, and 
children too. 

The induna then demanded "presents" from them. 
M. Coillard refused point blank, saying that he had no 
right to ask anything from captives at his mercy. 
Strange to say, this man, who could easily have taken 
anything he wanted, at once saw the justice of this, and 
later on grew almost effusive when a small present was 
offered him. 

The heat was such that the water in the barrels was 
sometimes too hot for their lips to touch, though they 
were nearly dying of thirst. Once they trekked for eleven 
and a half hours without one outspan over the rough, 
roadless ground. As usual in the hot season, there were 
heavy storms which made the swamps and rivers almost 
impassable and the bivouacs a misery. To pick a 
flower, to wash in a stream "in our country" was an 
unpardonable liberty. Knowing that they were tech- 
nically trespassers, they did not dispute these restraints ; 
but when they were forbidden to write letters or diaries, 
which were supposed to be the weaving of spells against 
Lo Bengula, they declined to submit, and their escort 
looked the other way. 



CHAPTEK XIV 



MATABELELAND 
1878 

Three Months' Captivity — Lo Bengula's Kraal — Servus Servorwm Dei 
— Expulsion from Bulawayo. 

BEFOBE halting at the village of the Matabele 
chief the whole caravan was sprinkled with charmed 
water by the chief medicine-man to destroy the evil 
magic they might have brought from the Banyai. At 
M. Coillard's first interview the chief would hardly speak. 
He insisted on seeing Mme. Coillard, who consented to 
visit his camp. Lo Bengula thereupon waxed almost 
gallant, and escorted her to the shade of his waggon. 
Then seating himself on his throne (in this case an 
empty soap-box), he graciously invited her to sit at his 
feet. But here her husband interfered, " With us, ladies 
do not sit upon the ground," and Lo Bengula fetched a 
seat for her himself, and listened with the greatest atten- 
tion to all she told him of their adventures and purposes. 
However, it was two and a half months before he could 
assemble the headmen of his nation to give them a 
decided answer, and that was a refusal. Mr. Sykes, the 
missionary (L.M.S.), did all he could to help them, but in 
vain. All that time they were close prisoners at their 
camp. This was not because Lo Bengula wished to 

254 



1878] 



LO BENGULA 



255 



insult his captives, but he dared not let them out of his 
sight, lest his people should kill them ; and as he was a 
nomad, lived in his waggon, and travelled at a moment's 
notice, whenever he moved they had to move too. On 
New Year's Day they were trying to cheer their forlorn 
little party by arranging a dinner and some festivities for 
the children, when suddenly word was brought that the 
chief was starting and they must follow; so they had 
to take their pans off the fire and hastily pack up and 
trek. 

Their knowledge of Zulu enabled them to converse 
freely with him, and from the first the old savage seemed 
to take the greatest pleasure in their society. He con- 
stantly invited them into his court, where, however, they 
witnessed many painful and disgusting sights. The 
cruelty of the Matabele was abominable. Lo Bengula 
never allowed any one to become a Christian. If he 
showed the least inclination to be friendly with the 
missionaries of the L.M.S., the suspect was put to death, 
but ostensibly by accident. The chief was always sur- 
rounded by executioners, or, rather, professional assassins, 
and no one knew who might be their next victim. It was 
true that he treated white people well ; in fact, his court 
was usually full of traders and prospectors, drinking beer 
at his expense ; but his grievance against the Coillards 
was that they were associated with Basutos, " who," said 
his chiefs, " smell of Molapo, the traitor — that unworthy 
son of Moshesh who sold our kinsman Langalibalele." 
For this reason their lives were never safe for a moment, 
and once they were in actual peril. Lo Bengula could 
not believe they had reached his country through the 
Transvaal. He understood that Queen Victoria was 
now sovereign of the Transvaal, and hence she was his 
next neighbour. How was it, then, she had not sent 
him a present by them ? 



256 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



"No doubt she would have done so," said an English- 
man present, " if she had known of your existence." 

" What," he growled angrily, " who could there be that 
does not know me, and the extent of my kingdom ? " 

Mme. Coillard came to the rescue. 

" Difficult as your chieftainship must find it to believe 
such a thing," she said, " there are beings so wretched 
and benighted as never even to have heard of you ! " and 
the situation was saved. 

When asked by Lo Bengula to witness a native dance, 
M. Coillard complied, but did not stay too long for fear 
he should seem to sanction all that went on. " However " 
(he wrote), "I think that missionaries should be very 
particular, and before manifesting their disapprobation 
distinguish between what is national and what is heathen. 
Unfortunately the two characters are seldom separated." 

The traders and others were extremely surprised at the 
way in which the Coillards conformed to native etiquette. 
" We simply tell the Matabele that we don't understand 
their customs," said one of the former one day. But by 
this compliance with ceremony, and "rendering to all 
their dues," from the chief downwards, they were enabled 
to maintain their own dignity far better than by ignoring 
this ceremonial, and also were able to know when they 
were being properly or improperly treated themselves, 
which those who ignored native ceremonial often did 
not. They told Lo Bengula frankly that they regretted 
their unwilling trespass in his country, and thanked him 
for recovering their cattle from Masonda. 

The ideas which the Matabele had gathered about 
M. Coillard, partly from Asser and partly from a Boer, 
were very curious. " He had arrived in Basutoland quite 
a boy, and had grown up under the tutelage of Moshesh ; 
then, war having broken out, the Boers had driven him 
away into Natal. Somptseu (Mr. T. Shepstone) had 



1878] A QUESTION OF LEADERSHIP 257 



taken care of him, made a man of him, and sent him 
back to Basntoland married " — a story which would 
have surprised no one more than Mr. Shepstone himself ! 
Asser in his loyalty evidently thought that Lo Bengula 
objected to M. Coillard because he was a white man, 
and therefore sought to give him citizenship as a Mosuto. 
He was quite right in thinking that Somptseu's was a 
name to conjure with among all the Zulu races, but 
wrong in supposing it would be any advantage to the 
Coillards to pass as Basutos. 

Fearing lest the latter should compromise their 
character and safety by well-intentioned evasions, M. 
Coillard told them they must allow him, and him alone, 
to be their spokesman. Thereupon he discovered that 
in their eyes he was not their leader at all, but only a 
lengolo, an interpreter ! This was a Basuto mission. 
The catechists were the Banyai missionaries, and if he 
had only understood that from the first, all this trouble 
and failure would have been avoided. Their leader was 
one of themselves, a man whom they had invested 
(deservedly be it said) with a double halo, as a pioneer 
and martyr, and whose head in consequence had been 
slightly turned, and they resented M. Coillard's having 
had his first interview with Lo Bengula alone. Little 
did they realise that if he had not prepared the way for 
them their first interview would probably have been their 
last. He called them together, and listened to the 
outpourings of their " pelaelo " {back-thoughts) for two 
hours. 

At the end of it he told them with great gentleness 
that he was their leader; there must be no mistake 
whatever about that. He was there to guide them in 
their first independent venture "as a mother guides the 
child who is beginning to walk alone, and that they must 
respect their mother." They took his reply in good part, 

18 



258 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



and one of them went so far as to say that Lo Bengula 
had sent such a peremptory message, it was clear that 
monare had not had time to call any of them, so they 
would overlook the apparent slight. He was quite williDg 
that they should have this ladder to climb down by, and 
the question was not raised again. He understood very 
well that the poor men were suffering bitterly from the 
insolence and rapacity of the Matabele, who stole every- 
thing possible from the waggons (in two instances the 
very hats off their heads as they slept) , and from their own 
mortification and disappointment, as also from the com- 
plaints of their wives, who, with one exception, were not 
equal to themselves in Christian development. 

Besides, to their simple minds it was all so clear. 
Asser and Jonathan had explored among the Banyai, 
and all had gone well. They next started with M. 
Dieterlen, and their journey ended in Pretoria gaol. The 
third time they had brought M. Coillard, and here they 
were, Lo Bengula's captives. Q.E.D. ! "And," added one 
of them in the bitterness of his soul, "if we had only had 
properly ordained Basuto pastors, we should not have 
needed you at all. We only brought you along with us 
to baptize our converts and marry our Church members ! " 
M. Coillard's breath was taken away. " What, then," he 
asked, " is your conception of the pastor's relation to the 
evangelist?" "The pastor is undoubtedly the servant 
of the evangelist," they all exclaimed in chorus. 

This was not " Ethiopianism." The colour question 
had nothing to do with it, except that the method of 
reasoning was entirely African. From the first Sunday 
of the expedition M. Coillard had urged upon them the 
text, " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus . . . who . . . took upon Him the form of a 
servant." " I am among you as he that serveth." "He 
that will be greatest among you, let him be servant of 



1878] SELF-DENIAL OF EASUTOS 259 



all." They had simply put their own construction upon 
servus servorum Dei, and taken him at his word. Clearly 
the evangelist was not the servant of the pastor ; he had 
his own responsibility to his Master. Therefore, of 
course, the pastor must be the servant of the evangelist. 
The problem is at least as old as Moses and Aaron. 
Which is the post of honour : ministry within the 
Church, or testimony outside it ? The building or the 
battle ? M. Coillard was not by nature a theologian, and 
his teaching was not so much systematic as practical, 
arising naturally out of the application of God's Word 
to the circumstances of the moment. He saw that the 
difficulty which now met him arose from a lack of the 
spirit of Christ in His people, a misconception of 
Christianity, and he met it by manifesting the spirit 
in which they were lacking rather than by a doctrinal 
sermon on their errors which they would have only half 
understood. He knew that where there is true love to 
the Saviour, very limited and even erroneous views do not 
of themselves prevent faithful and successful service. 
The lesson of his example was not lost upon them, as the 
immediate sequel showed. A new test arose, and the 
way in which the Basutos met it afforded a touching 
proof of their sincerity and devotion. 

In their own country they had had two kinds of beer — 
the strong, which Christians never touch, and the weak, 
which is rather a food than a drink, and hurts nobody. 
The Matabele had neither, but something between the 
two, and the members of the party had been taking it 
freely. It seemed to do their health good, and was 
their only luxury. The missionary, Mr. Sykes, was a 
strong teetotaller, and he begged M. Coillard to put a stop 
to his people drinking beer, because it was so abused by 
the Matabele and by many of their white sojourners. He 
did not feel he could forbid it, but he put the matter 



260 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



before them, asking them if they were willing to deny 
themselves rather than be a stumbling-block. They 
agreed at once to do so, without making any difficulty 
about it. Nor had they lost courage and faith. One 
and all said the greatest misfortune they could meet 
would be to return to Basutoland without making a 
further effort to find a field. One of the catechists said 
(at Mr. Thomas's station of Shiloh), "If the diamond 
mines are portioned out in claims it is the same with 
nations, and we know this country with its numerous 
tribes form the claims of the Saviour." 

The real opponent of the Banyai Mission was "Nina," 
the chief's sister and adviser, " a perfect Fredegonde," 
says M. Coillard, and a well-known character whom 
many travellers have described. Always amiable to 
white people, to the blacks she was cruelty personified. 

" One of the tortures in vogue was as follows : The 
hands were tied behind the back to two very slender 
sticks which passed up behind the shoulders, and were 
then tied tightly back and front of the head. Then they 
were continuously struck with another stick. The 
stopping of the circulation and the shaking of the 
nervous system cause such torture and delirium that a 
man can be made to say anything. 

" The pretended doctors or wizards who urge this 
bloodthirsty king to all these crimes are Matsitsis, who 
originally came from Basutoland, after having made a 
long stay in the Cape Colony. They are comparatively 
civilised, wear clothes, have waggons, make butter (which 
they sell at the reasonable price of two or three shillings 
a pound), and keep to themselves. Yet people say 'You 
must civilise these natives before you begin to Christianise 
them.' Here is indeed a proof of it ! " 



1878] A BOER BIOGRAPHY 261 



Both in their journals dwell on the dreariness of these 
three months, " a life in which there is nothing to do, 
nothing to read, nothing to distract." They were not 
even allowed to sketch, pick flowers, or collect specimens 
for fear of witchcraft, and had to live the whole time in 
public at their waggons, surrounded by a thievish crowd, 
who sat on the back, on the box, on the wheels, con- 
tinually making insulting remarks, people whom nothing 
could abash, and who never left them alone for an 
instant, ill or well. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" Never have we had such bitter experiences as in this 
country. . . . But I must not let myself go with these 
stormy thoughts. ... St. Paul had learnt a great lesson 
when he said, ' I know how to be abased. I can do all 
things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' 0 God, 
teach me too that divine lesson in Thy school. Preserve 
me from bitterness, from sharpness, from indifference — 
from unbelief" 

Among the very few they met with whom to hold 
pleasant intercouse was a Boer of French descent, once 
a Freethinker, or Liberal, as they called themselves. 

" In his youth he had been an employe of some English 
Government office ; the Kaffir wars ruined him ; the com- 
pensation promised him he only received in the form of 
a bit of paper (a promissory note, which got wet in the 
river and he threw it away). The abolition of slavery 
in 1835 so exasperated him against the English Govern- 
ment that he emigrated . . . and fought in Natal 
under Pretorius against the Zulus and the English. He 
fought against Sir Harry Smith at Boomplatz, and was 
one of the founders of the Transvaal Kepublic. There 



262 COILLARX) OF THE ZAMBESI 



he became the furious rival of P. Kruger. A price (if I 
mistake not) having been put on his head by the English, 
. . . he thought himself safer in the Marico districts, 
where he ruled as a chief. The moment the Transvaal 
became British territory he sought refuge among the 
Matabele. Such was the enthusiasm of his liberalism 
that one day he galloped over to give a flogging to an 
evangelical preacher who had dared to proclaim the 
Gospel in his district. This preacher was Mr. Cachet, 
our friend, and the affair took place in 1869, when we 
passed Potchefstroom on the way to Motito." 

[A circumstance alluded toinF. C.'s diary of 1868, not 
1869.] 

" The V. of to-day is altogether another man. Speak- 
ing of his own history he said to me, ' Oh, sir, if I were 
to write my own biography you would be very sad in 
reading it, for I was a perfect savage, a pure-blooded 
Frenchman [sic], . . . But when I think of the goodness 
of God, how He has delivered me from the bullets of the 
enemy, from the claws of the lion, from the horn of the 
buffalo, the foot of the elephant, and, in spite of my 
blindness and my folly, He has never forsaken me, I 
ought to bless and praise Him on my knees till the skin 
is worn off.' 

"V. was going to Lo Bengula to ask him to con- 
firm to him the gift he had received of a farm in the 
country." 

" February 18, 1878. 
" ' Waiting on the Lord ! ' Now, as Christina remarked 
yesterday, 'we are waiting on the king.' What a 
lesson ! . . . One would like to work, to sweat, to have 
hardly time to breathe, then one feels he is something, 
has done something . . . feels at least useful, if not 
necessary, and forgets his true position before God. 



1878] LO BENGULA'S REFUSAL 263 



But to feel one is nothing and can do absolutely nothing, 
that the Master has set one aside . . . oh, it is harder 
to the flesh than might be thought. I do not know if 
eager and active characters would not rather suffer than 
be condemned to inaction and waiting. ' Let patience 
have her perfect work.'" 

Lo Bengula's Govebnment. 

"Under the government of Moshesh, a representative 
system had bound the fragments of broken tribes into 
a close bundle. At the lekhothla every day the humblest 
citizen puts in practice the adage ' Mo a khothla ga a 
gande ' [In the lekhothla any one may make mistakes, 
i.e., be proved guilty] . 

" Here the Government is despotic and arbitrary : the 
chief's word is without appeal. I have not been able to 
discover any judicial forms. The one who first gets his 
word in before the King has the most chance to win 
his cause. The chief forms his opinion from the begin- 
ning, and the most peremptory arguments will not sway 
him. What attention can he pay to the affairs of his 
country when his time is taken up from morning till 
night with disputes about a goat or a calf that has died ? " 

The yearly national assemblies took place in the latter 
half of February. Fifteen human lives were sacrificed, 
Lo Bengula acting as High Priest of the nation. This 
was what they had been kept waiting for. On March 1st 
he called M. Coillard and the men of his party, together 
with Mr. Sykes of the L.M.S., to hear the final decision 
of his nobles as to the Banyai Mission. It was a point- 
blank refusal. After they had arrived in answer to his 
summons, Lo Bengula kept them waiting for five hours 
(11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) in the burning sun, while he fed his 
ostriches, dogs, and pigeons. 



264 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" Then sitting on a rock, his only garment a long strip 
of yellow calico tied on like a bandolier, and two woollen 
shirts tied round his waist by the sleeves, half turning his 
back to us, Lo Bengula asked Mr. Sykes to tell him what 
had passed at the morning's conference. ... At last 
L. B. asked me what I had to say. I had just begun 
when he got up and walked away." . . . 

A long and stormy scene ensued. There was no order, 
the chiefs all shouted at once, covering them with insults, 
" Where shall we go raiding if the Banyai have mis- 
sionaries ? and as for the Basutos, they smell of Molapo, 
that treacherous chief who betrayed Langalibalele ! " 
" Where was Langalibalele taken prisoner, hey? " " Sykes, 
we know you ; Moffat brought you here. But these are 
foundlings — nobody's children ; we have nothing to do 
with them." " We hate to see you ! There is the road 
that leads out of our country. Begone ! " 

M. Coillard sat calmly looking at them. Nevertheless, 
even he felt shattered by this scene. He had a final 
private interview with Lo Bengula, and said to him, 
" If you had sent us away from Banyailand, no one could 
have said anything. But now you have shown us your 
face, and treated us kindly and we have eaten your food, 
to drive us out of your land for a fault that is not ours 
is a deed no other chief in Africa will understand." Lo 
Bengula hung his head. At last he said, "You — you 
have lived among men. Moshesh was a man. But I — 
you see I am alone. My chiefs will not let me have your 
Basutos. If you had been alone, it would have been 
different." 

" Chief," was the reply, " I also am a Mosuto. The 
blow that strikes them, strikes me first." 

Immediately afterwards the party was sent away to 
Mangwato, Khama's country, which they reached April 



1878] 



KHAMA 



265 



27, 1878. That Christian chief with his missionary, 
Mr. Hepburn, received the poor derelicts with open 
arms, and every one in the place loaded them with 
kindness. They needed it, for they had travelled a whole 
month by forced marches through a burning wilderness, 
foodless and waterless, with six invalids among them. 
They had only once been able to buy meat, giraffe's flesh, 
from a Boer. 

Khama strongly advised them to go to the Zambesi, 
and offered to send an ambassador with them to Bobosi, 
the Barotsi king, now called Lewanika. Mme. Coillard 
wrote : — 

" It cannot be possible that the Lord will long allow 
these wild, fierce Matabele to continue to be an obstacle 
to Christianity and civilisation. Surely all these events 
[referring to some murders of white people, Morgan 
Thomas, Captain Patterson, and Mr. Sargeant] will but 
hasten the climax, and with it the day when the iron 
bars will be broken, and the door into this fortress of 
heathenism burst open." 



CHAPTEK XV 



THE ZAMBESI 



1878 



Khama's Town — Journey to the Zambesi — Victoria Falls — The 
Barotsi — Memories of Livingstone — Major Serpa Pinto — 
Deaths in the Desert — A Den of Lions — Poisoners — The 
Eeturn Journey — Mochache the Prophetess — Home again. 



T Shoshong, the capital of the Mangwato district, 



Xjl the expedition perforce halted. It was a time of 
year when further travelling was impossible ; besides 
which six of the party were invalided. Thus they were 
able to rest and consider the situation. M. Coillard's 
mind and purpose were made up from the beginning : 
not to return to Basutoland without finding a field for 
the catechists to evangelise. He felt the moment was 
a crisis in the history of Central Africa. His reasons 
were threefold : — 

Firstly. — He had not originated the expedition, nor 
had he offered to undertake it till he was asked. It was 
a trust, and he must fulfil it or stand condemned before 
his conscience and his Master. 

Secondly. — He knew that the Basuto Church had 
potential power to play a part in Africa's future evan- 
gelisation, but if this opportunity were lost there would 
never be another. 




266 



1878] PLANS FOR THE ZAMBESI 267 



Thirdly. — If this effort failed it would give a handle to 
every one who said that the natives had no real initiative 
and zeal in propagating Christianity. 

His desire had always been, after seeing the catechists 
settled in Banyailand, to push on to the Zambesi and 
visit the Makololo. In Bulawayo he had met several 
people from those regions. From them he learned that 
the Makololo had been overthrown ten or twelve years 
earlier, and that the whole country had since been one 
prolonged scene of anarchy. " Ours is a land of blood," 
they said. " Why do you grieve that you cannot go 
to the Banyai, whose tongue is strange to you, when 
you know ours so well ? Why not come to us instead ? " 
The Barotsi and their allied tribes still spoke the lan- 
guage of Basutoland, which their conqueror, Sebitoane, 
had imposed upon them all as a lingua franca . He was 
confirmed in his desire to visit them by a distinguished 
traveller, Mr. Frewen, F.R.G.S., who had just come 
from the Zambesi to Bulawayo. He, however, had not 
crossed the river ; he said that no white man had done 
so since Dr. Livingstone ; except Westbeech, a trader, 
the Barotsi allowed no one to enter their country. This 
they kept in mind, and after consulting with Mr. Hep- 
burn and with Khama, who strongly advised the under- 
taking, the attempt was decided upon. There was no 
time to write for counsel or permission ; it had to be 
then or never. Immediately difficulties arose. First, 
the arrival of the post, which they had not had for 
months, announced a deficit in their Society, and the 
news from home filled the Basuto helpers with longings 
to return. One — indeed one of the best — who had left 
his family behind, was seized with home-sickness, which 
among Africans is a real malady. They knew if one left, 
all the others would want to go too, and yet they could 
not forbid the poor fellow to return to his wife and chil- 



268 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



dren. M. Coillard put the position before hirn and said : 
" Go and pray about it." A few days afterwards he 
announced he was ready to stay. Then the leader him- 
self fell ill, first with ulcers from head to foot, and then 
with ague in its worst form. No matter ; the first day 
he was able for it they started. The wives and children 
were left at Shoshong, in charge of two catechists, with 
Bushman (who was sick) . The others all set their faces 
northwards. 

Journal F. C. : — 

"As we talk it over, Christina and myself, we cannot 
think it is amour propre that sends us to the Zambesi. 
The prospect before us is too prosaic, too severe, too 
real. . . . 

"I hear that Dr. Stewart has gone to England to ask 
for a steam packet for Quilimane. . . . The British 
Government is preparing to arrange telegraphic com- 
munication from the Cape to Tete by way of Mangwato. 
What giant's strides ! Central Africa opens, thank God 
. . . How splendid will be the day, which I see already 
dawning, when all the tribes of Central Africa, all along 
the Congo and round the Lakes, will know Jesus and 
sing His praises ! It will be a sight for angels. The 
sacrifice of a life is a small thing to contribute to hasten 
that glorious day." 

It was certainly not a party of pleasure. The awful 
experiences of the Helmore and Price expedition in 1859 
were fresh in their minds. The danger was now lessened, 
the road was better known ; but in Africa it is very easy 
to miss the path even on a known track. Makoatsa, the 
man whom Khama sent with them, had been chosen 
because of his rank, and was of no use as a guide. One 
desert-dweller whom they met, and of whom they asked 



1878] THE MACARI-CAM DESERT 269 



the direction, replied : " A flask of powder before I open 
my mouth ! " This they were bound to refuse, since at 
such a rate of extortion they would soon have none left, 
so they had to guess the way and lose it, then and many 
times after. Travelling with exhausted resources exposed 
them to many difficulties, which a trifling expenditure, 
had it been possible, would have averted. Their people 
were faithful and in earnest, but Africans have not the 
same fortitude as Europeans. Hitherto they had held 
out well, but now they needed very gentle handling. 
Often their leader sat up watching the camp all night 
while they calmly slept. It is not surprising that the 
wanderings of the Israelites were their constant theme of 
meditation. They did not meet with exciting adven- 
tures, as in Banyailand, but they had not the same 
lovely country to travel through, only bare, sandy 
flats, with half-dried salt pans, or the dreary mopani- 
scrub, which always denotes poor soil. The mopani is 
a tree not unlike the beech in appearance, with butterfly 
leaves, casting a very imperfect shade. The land seemed 
uninhabited, but it all belonged to somebody, as they 
found out very quickly whenever they wanted to shoot 
game or to water their oxen. The wandering natives 
themselves respected each other's hunting grounds. 

Mme. Coillard had brought Carlyle's Frederick the 
Great from Mangwato, with which to beguile the 
journey, and also her niece's lesson-books, which the 
latter would much have preferred to leave behind ! Out- 
side activities were more to her taste, and her adven- 
turous spirit and utter fearlessness were sometimes rather 
alarming to her elders. 

They left Shoshong on June 14th, and met their first 
Morotsi at Leshoma, on August 1st. The waggons 
had to be halted at this spot some distance from the 
river to avoid the tsetse fly. For the same reason they 



270 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



had often had to travel by night, since this insect, the 
sting of which kills an ox, is only active by day. At 
that time all the banks of the Zambesi were infested 
with it. 

Leshoma was infested with another foe. The thickets 
were full of lions, who often roared around their camp 
all night. Once they had a dog taken from the gate of 
their stockade ; two nights later the lion came quite 
inside and killed another which was tethered to the tent 
where Elise was sleeping. At Deka another lion carried 
off the ass's foal from under the waggon where they 
slept ; nothing was left of it but one hoof and the tip of 
its little tail. The poor mother donkey did nothing but 
bray sorrowfully, and would not move nor graze. A 
lion hunt was organised, led by M. Coillard, and a Boer 
killed the beast after an exciting chase. 

On their arrival they heard that Sepopa, the first king 
of the restored Barotsi dynasty, had been put to death 
for his cruelties eighteen months before. He used to 
amuse himself by rowing out to one of the large islands 
of the Zambesi, capturing the children of the villages 
(left alone while their parents were tending their fields 
on shore), and throwing them to the crocodiles as we 
should feed ducks. 

Since his death two claimants had been disputing for 
his throne. Nguana-wina, who had helped Sepopa to 
overthrow the Makololo, had succeeded him, and been 
deposed almost at once in favour of Eobosi (now Lewa- 
nika), who still had the upper hand, but only for the 
moment. He was building his capital, Lealui, on the 
Upper River. 

A message was sent him through his chiefs at 
Sesheke, the principal town on the Lower Kiver, to 
announce the visitors and Khama's ambassador. "While 
waiting for his reply the party visited the Victoria Falls. 



1878] THE VICTORIA FALLS 271 



Mme. Coillard and her niece were probably the first 
European ladies to see them. 

This excursion, which occupied a fortnight, was one of 
the brightest spots in their lives. It was made partly 
with carriers, and partly in the little native mekorros (or 
dug-out canoes) along the exquisite river. Its beauty 
remains unchanged, but in other respects the banks of 
the Zambesi are very different now from what they were 
in those days. Then they were lined by a large popu- 
lation ; every island had its villages. They boasted 
immense herds of game and flocks of wild birds, 
buffaloes, elephants, and lions, crocodiles and hippo- 
potami. (Livingstone wrote in one of his journals that 
the antelopes were so abundant he mistook a horned 
herd for a forest, and M. Coillard himself experienced 
the same illusion.) The last three are still there in 
plenty, but the elephants have been almost exterminated, 
and the rinderpest has swept away the antelopes and 
buffaloes. The Matabele raids destroyed or drove away 
the people. 

The start was difficult. One obstinate guide said, 
" But, master, you know man's king is his heart, and 
my king doesn't want me to go to the Mosi-Oa-tunia 
[" Thundering Smoke," the native name for Victoria 
Falls], so what can I do?" 

Of course, there were the usual mischances, one of 
which was rather terrible. Quite suddenly, in returning 
to Leshoma, they came upon the half-gnawed skull and 
bones of a man's body. He had been killed by a lion a 
few days before. 

Their great delight was in the natives. The Barotsi, 
who are known to possess the most perfect manners, 
could not do enough to show their welcome to the white 
visitors, bringing them little offerings of honey, milk, 
fish, fruit, and other dainties, with pretty deprecating 



272 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



speeches and much bowing and clapping of hands. All 
these courtesies had to be paid for, and paid dearly later 
on, but at the moment there was nothing to cloud their 
delight. They had found what they sought — a vast 
population speaking the same tongue as their own 
people, understanding every word they said, and ready 
to receive them, as it seemed, with open arms. Both 
they and the Basutos felt perfectly at home. The latter, 
as kindred of the Makololo, were treated with such respect 
that their leader feared it would turn their heads. M. 
Coillard at once went a preaching tour along the banks 
and islands. 

Memories of Livingstone. 

" Zambesi, August 13, 1878. 
" A voyage on the Zambesi from village to village. This 
has been one of the finest days of our journey. Never 
had I expected to have the joy of a tour among the isles 
of the Zambesi, preaching and singing ... in Sesuto to 
people who understand and speak it like their own 
tongue ! My only regret was that my poor C. was not 
with me, sharing my joy. But I had left her at the post 
of duty ; she is always to be found there and always equal 
to it." 

He had only to call himself moruti (missionary), 
and at once he was welcomed in the name of Living- 
stone. The impression left by that great man was truly 
wonderful, and he was already becoming a miraculous 
figure. 

" The chief Mokoro . . . declared it was monare nga Jca 
(the missionary doctor) who had killed Sebitoane, and but 
for him the latter would be living still ! Sebitoane 
wanted to ride on horseback; Livingstone opposed this. 



18781 



SEBITOANE 



273 



* You are full of human blood ' (i.e., a man who has shed 
blood), he said. 'You will die.' Sebitoane insisted, 
had a fall, and died of the consequences. Of course, 
Livingstone had bewitched him." 

In reality, Sebitoane had died of pneumonia, so Dr. 
Livingstone said in his Travels on the Zambesi. Many 
years later M. Coillard obtained some further light upon 
this fixed idea of Sebitoane's death by witchcraft. As 
the story really belongs to this part of the history, it is 
given below. It will be remembered that this chief left 
Basutoland at the head of a force early in the nineteenth 
century, and slowly fought his way to the Zambesi. His 
method with his foes was not to exterminate them as did 
the Matabele, but to absorb them. Once conquered, he 
incorporated them into his army with their families, and 
showed them the greatest kindness. He invited some 
Matabele warriors to a parley on one of the islands of 
the Zambesi ; the latter probably expected to form an 
alliance with him against the Barotsi. Instead, his 
followers stole the canoes in the night, thus trapping 
the Matabele, whom they massacred. The Barotsi, 
who preferred strategy to valour, begged him to rule 
over them and protect them from the continual ravages 
of the Matabele, and he consented. 

JouKNAL F. C. : — 

"December 24, 1900. 
" As I was told that Katusi was here, I went to see him. 
He is Litia's father-in-law. . . . He talked about old 
times ; he had known Livingstone when the latter had 
just escaped from the claws of the lion and had his arm 
broken.* He told me a curious fact. When Sebitoane 
attacked Sechele's village [Bechuanaland] , Livingstone 

* In 1844. See Life of Dr. Moffat (T. Fisher Unwin), pp. 168, 216. 

19 



274 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



was there on an evangelising tour ; he had come from 
Kuruman, where he was still residing. One morning, 
hearing a noise and an unaccountable agitation, he 
hastily left his hut. The village was invested by the 
Makololos [the name given by the Barotsi to Sebitoane's 
adherents]. Livingstone, who had a sjambok in his 
hand, felt so indignant at the pillage that was going 
on that, seeing a man crawling out of one of Sechele's 
huts, he brought down several blows on his back which 
made the blood start and raised weals. It was Sebitoane 
himself. He stood up, seized Livingstone by the hair, 
and threw him down. The people ran up, and the 
assegais were about to pierce him, but Sebitoane inter- 
posed. ' Let him go, he is a stranger, a white man,' 
and looking straight at him he said, ' You have courage, 
you are a brave man. Never before has any one dared 
to strike me.' Livingstone understood whom he had 
attacked. 

" ' You are strong,' he said, and peace was made, once 
feelings had cooled down. Livingstone gave £3 as an 
amende honorable to Sebitoane, and Sebitoane on his 
part presented him with five oxen. When later on they 
met at the Zambesi [seven years later], they laughed and 
joked together over this incident. ' You are strong,' 
said Livingstone to S., 'to have taken me by the 
hair and throw me down.' And Sebitoane showed 
him the scar he bore on his back, and said, 'And 
you are a famous warrior to attack Sebitoane all 
alone, who has conquered so many tribes. Look 
at this mark ! You are the only one who has ever 
beaten me.' 

" I wonder, though, if his people did not bear a grudge 
against Livingstone, for when Sebitoane died of pleurisy 
some days after meeting Monare Livingstone at Sesheke, 
they accused the latter of causing his death." 



1878] 



LIVINGSTONE 



275 



Journal F. C. : — 

"September 20, 1884. 

" Livingstone ! * It is interesting to find his traces here. 
His passage left the impression of a supernatural appa- 
rition, and the stories they tell of him now have naturally 
a legendary character. There was everything to strike 
the imagination of the natives. He was the first white 
man they had ever seen. They say he was fine and tall 
(I never saw him myself). He spoke the Makololo 
tongue. He was the best hunter ever known. ' Are 
you hungry?' he would ask the first comer. ' Yes. 
' What w r ould you like — a buffalo quarter ? ' Living- 
stone would shoulder his gun, and instantly knock down 
a buffalo grazing at an incredible distance, give up the 
meat to him who had asked it, and pass on. Did he 
travel by canoe? ' If you are hungry,' he would say to 
his paddlers, * well, tell me when we pass a village.' 
He would then buy pots of curded milk, beer, &c. ; his 
people ate their fill, and the rest was left for those who 
had sold it. Did he want a fat ox? When it was 
brought he would ask, ' What do you think, my friends, 
is that what we want?' 'Yes, ngaka (doctor).' He 
took his gun and despatched it. 'Now, what do you 
want for the beast ? ' The bargain ended and the price 
paid, he would take the piece he chose, and leave the 
rest, with the skin, to the proprietor. 

" He was particularly friendly to old men. He would 
call them and talk to them, asking all sorts of questions, 
and send them away with presents. If he saw cattle- 
herds or girls at work, he gathered them round him, and 
sent them away always with presents. Thus he opened 
a way for himself, even among the tribes that seemed 
most hostile. Sometimes on seeing him they would rush 

* Introduced here as completing the subject of Livingstone's traces 
at the Zambesi. 



276 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



on him with threats that terrified his companions. He 
kept silence, let the thunder roll by, and once it had 
ceased, he talked, chatted, distributed packets of beads 
and bits of stuff; and the people, full of enthusiasm, 
would go home and bring out bread, curds, beer ; and 
Livingstone went on. He astonished people with his 
marvels, and nothing could be quainter than their de- 
scriptions of the magic lanterns, Bengal fires, and Eoman 
candles he showed off on great occasions. ' He lighted 
gunpowder on a man's hand by means of a burning-glass. 
He brought up all the nations of the earth, and made 
them pass under the eyes of the Zambesians through a 
little hole,' and what not ? The admiration, the astonish- 
ment of these poor people knew no limits. What is 
certain is that Livingstone preached more by his pure 
life and his unbounded devotion than by his words. The 
old people who travelled with him always end by saying, 
'Ngaka (the doctor), ah! he was not a man like any 
other, he was a god ! ' What a beautiful testimony ! 
what footsteps to leave behind ! Gathering up all the 
stories of this extraordinary man, I conclude that he was 
energetic, playful, yet full of dignity, generous, upright, 
and sincere." 

Livingstone's denunciations of the natives' cruelty to 
the Helmore and Price expedition were still fresh in their 
memories (see pp. 179-80). 

" September 2, 1878. 

" Morantsiane said, ' Sekeletu ill-treated the missionaries, 
and the Makololo would not receive them, and where are 
they now? . . . Sepopa, seizing the power, put his 
brothers to death and exterminated their children and 
slaves, and now where is he? Nguana-wina laid his 
impious hand on Sepopa, and now where is he ? ' " 



1878] SEPOPA AND THE BAROTSI 277 



Journal F. C. (1878 continued) : — 

" It was Mpororo, the successor of Sekeletu, who 
alienated the Barotsi from the Makololo power and caused 
them to revolt against him. Sebitoane had never 
conquered the Barotsi, but these, being reduced by 
famine on an island where they had taken refuge, had 
begged him to become their king and feed them. Their 
true king, Sepopa, was too proud to submit, and went 
away to the Mbua, where he became chief after killing 
their own, who had plotted against him. After the 
Makololo had been massacred, the Barotsi invited Sepopa 
back, and he consented. But he made himself unpopular 
at once by refusing to let them come near him, ' for fear 
of stifling him,' he said. As they had regarded their 
Makololo chiefs as fathers rather than despots they were 
alienated. The day of the first pitso he presented each 
of the chiefs with an ox for his people, and then had them 
massacred in cold blood by his personal followers. Their 
people withdrew silently with the oxen stained by the 
blood of their chiefs ; the meat stuck in their throats. 
Then Sepopa swept out all the Makololos ; killed the 
men and made slaves of the girls. He also put to death 
all the Barotsi whose power he dreaded. Nguana-wina 
revolted against him, he [Sepopa] was shot [not fatally], 
and died miserably on an island. 

" Nguana-wina, a young man, then tried to kill off all the 
old men and important people of the previous generation; 
hence civil war." 

Some of the chiefs of Sesheke were revenue officers, 
who came down once a year to collect ivory, which was 
(and is still) the king's monopoly, and to sell it to the 
traders. One of these, Mokumba, was a fine type of the 
noble savage. 



278 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



" He gives but he does not beg. Showing a fine railway 
rug given him by the trader he says, ' This is not for 
me, it is for the king. I shall present it to him. If 
he accepts it and gives it to me, I shall put it on in the 
midst of the court before every one, so that no one shall 
believe that I bought it with the king's ivory.' " 

This was because the smuggling of ivory was very com- 
mon. Natives offered to sell it to M. Coillard for powder. 

The Barotsi had great reverence for tombs and for the 
dead. The visitors saw ivory tusks stuck in the grave of 
a princess ; the head of a hippopotamus in that of a 
hunter, a simple knobkerry in those of private individuals, 
and all were equally respected. At the death of a chief, 
his wives and slaves in succession would throw themselves 
to the crocodiles to accompany him to the other world. 

What charmed the Barotsi above all was that the 
moruti had brought his wife. Her praises filled the 
country : she could talk their language ; she was so 
accessible ; she liked the people to come and talk to her. 

(His ink being spilt, this part of the diary was written 
with Worcester sauce !) 

No sooner had they returned to camp, however, than 
complications arose. There were a good many traders at 
Leshoma, buying ivory and skins from the interior, and 
they did not give a reassuring account of the country. 
" The people were all poisoners." Everything was 
decided, not on its merits, but by the poison ordeal. 
That was the cause, they said, of the Helmore and Price 
disaster. The draught (called moati) had been given to 
fowls, they all died; then to dogs, they all died; and 
finally to an ox, which was offered to the party as ' ' the 
ox of welcome." They all ate of it, and all died but two, 
Mr. Helmore first, which convinced the Makololo that he 
was the arch-sorcerer. ' 'They will poison you" added 



1878] THE POISON-ORDEAL 279 



the friendly traders ; and on one occasion M. Coillard 
was certainly poisoned, but possibly it was accidental. 
Some of the Zambesi fish are deadly eating, and he had 
had one for supper. All these warnings and the perils 
that surrounded them made the promises of God a very 
real thing, and he records with delight how they read on 
August 19th — 

" ' All the shields of the earth belong unto God ' * (the 
Moravian text for the day). That is a good word in a 
time when Satan has let loose the dogs of war to arrest 
the progress of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to shut 
our door into Barotsiland." 

It appeared that Eobosi (Lewa^ika) was engaged at 
the moment in a violent conflict for the throne with his 
cousin Nguana-wina, and that was why his reply tarried. 
There was another reason : his witch-doctors were 
administering poison (moati) to chickens ; some died and 
some did not, hence they could not make up their minds 
whether to let the party enter the country or not. But 
this the latter did not learn till years afterwards. 

As soon as they returned from the Falls, M. Coillard 
started for Sesheke with Eleazar and Fono to await the 
king's reply, leaving Mme. Coillard and Elise at Leshoma, 
where a few huts had been put up. On September 6th 
he returned without having received the expected word 
and stricken down with fever. For eight days he hung 
between life and death. Meanwhile two of the boys had 
fallen ill ; indeed, every one was laid up more or less 
except Mme. Coillard and Eleazar. Khosana took a turn 
for the worse just as his master took a turn for the better. 
The latter rose from his bed to prescribe for him, but in 



* Psa. xlvii. 9. 



280 COILLARJD OF THE ZAMBESI 



vain ; he suddenly collapsed and died, a great sorrow 
to all. 

Eleazar now insisted on returning to Sesheke, that 
there might be some one to receive the king's answer 
when it came. The good, faithful man remained there 
till on October 19th came Robosi's message, which 
obliged M. Coillard to start at once for Sesheke. 

Jouenal F. C: — 

"Leshoma, October 19, 1878. 
" News at last. The king of Barotsiland will not allow 
me to enter his country because it is unhealthy ! Quoi- 
qu'il en soit, mon dme se repose en Dieu. 

" Sesheke, October 25th. 

" I arrived here at dusk. MM. Bradshaw (an ornitho- 
logist, travelling on the Zambesi) and Walsh received 
me with friendliness, but in a state of great excitement. 
' Oh, M. Coillard, why were you not here sooner ? A 
moment ago we were between life and death.' . . . The 
boatmen who had brought Major Serpa Pinto from 
Barotsiland and his carriers, who had all been paid, had 
come in a body to dispute their wages. The quarrel was 
so acute that it nearly ended tragically. The night put 
an end to these noisy hostilities, and Mokumba retired 
after seizing all Major Serpa Pinto's baggage. The 
Major was the only one who kept a little calm. 

"Major Serpa Pinto had travelled with two explorers 
and 400 armed men from Benguella. He arrived in 
Barotsiland alone with 150, who all deserted at Robosi's, 
frightened at his plan ; the country had such a bad 
reputation. He was left with two or three personal 
servants, ill and delirious. Robosi took all his baggage 
under pretext of taking care of it, but would not give it 
up, and thought he had acted nobly in presenting him 
with two elephant's tusks. . . . Next morning the mal- 




KING LEWANIKA AS A WARRIOR. 
Drawn by Fr. Cbristol from a photograph by P. Coillard. 

| To face p. 280. 



1878] MAJOR SERPA PINTO 281 



contents all crossed with the Major's luggage. After a 
long discussion I was able to bring them to reason." 

Major Serpa Pinto was sent to Leshoma to be nursed 
back to life by Mme. Coillard. M. Coillard sent another 
message to the king, and remained at Sesheke to await 
the reply, and to tend the faithful Eleazar. 

Unfortunately he found that the huts containing all 
the provisions, medicines, presents, &c, which he had 
left in charge of the local chiefs in readiness for the 
voyage he hoped to make to the capital, had been burnt 
down. Nothing was saved. However, he received in due 
time a more encouraging message from the capital. 

" November 2nd. 
" ' I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined unto 
me and heard my cry.' Eobosi, the king, complains 
that the Sesheke chiefs send him an important message 
by a slave. Now that he knows who the ngaka [doctor, 
their title for Livingstone] is, he salutes him very much, 
very much, and is happy to hear of his arrival. But he 
has only just come to the throne and has no house, so he 
can receive no one just now. ' But,' he says, ' if you 
wish to leave the country before the rainy season, go in 
peace, but return in winter — April that is — and for good.' " 

Meanwhile Mme. Coillard was having an anxious time 
alone. She wrote from Leshoma (October 29, 1878) : — 

" On Monday night Major Serpa Pinto was delirious, 
and I had to sit with him for a long time, but at half- 
past three he fell into a troubled sleep. My heart is very 
full, and I feel that the cares and anxieties I have to bear 
here are overwhelming. ... I tremble to ask how you 
are. I pray constantly to God to bring you back in 



282 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



safety and health. The thermometer has been at 115° 
these days ; we are not able to do much more than try to 
bear with patience this state of things. I very much fear 
you will say that this letter is worthy of Job's wife, but 
alas ! to whom can I speak of all these real and material 
troubles if not to you ? I send some white beads with 
this letter in the hope that you may be able to buy a sego 
or two or corn or beans. Don't think hardly of me, 
darling, because I write all this ; I really do not know 
what to do : . . . indeed, I think no duties at Sesheke can 
bear comparison to those which claim your presence here. 

"November 6, 1878. 
" I am in very great distress about you . . . for I know 
that your food must be done, and I cannot send any, 
for the boat in which these people came was capsized 
yesterday, and the same might happen again. Do . . . 
if it be possible, get Eleazar into the boat ; we can bear 
trouble so ill when we are parted thus. He might be 
better, too, by a change of air ; you know every one says 
so. Fono has been very ill ; he is the only one I have 
now here. Oh, I feel as if I could not contain myself in 
this sea of trouble. I hope the people of Sesheke won't 
come here, for it is only to get cloth, and there is none to 
be had, and no more beads at Wall's. Major Serpa 
Pinto can't get even a string to buy corn with, so you 
must be very careful of what you have. I have bought a 
little Kaffir corn this week, but at famine prices. Here 
the Mabele is now £3 10s. [per sack]." 

The most tender and constant care could not save 
Eleazar, and he died on November 5th, just after the 
message had come from Lewanika consenting to the 
founding of the mission. " Do you regret having 
come?" M. Coillard asked him sorrowfully. ''Oh 



18781 BUSHMAN AND ELEAZAR 283 



no ! " he replied; "I do not belong to myself; it is to 
the Lord I belong; it is His business, not mine. My 
tomb will be a 'tebeletso' (a sign of taking possession). 
I am only grieved for you and ' our mother,' who will be 
so sorry." 

Now that permission to return later had been received 
there was nothing to be done but to depart from this den 
of lions, which they did on November 13th, leaving their 
two graves behind them. Major Serpa Pinto, who had 
greatly attached himself to them, accompanied them as 
far as Deka. 

The return journey was slow but safe ; the rains had 
filled the desert pools, and the heat tried them less. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" Kiver Sua, December 17, 1878. 
" At our approach some of the children of the desert 
(Masaroas) took flight and hid in the forest. They feared 
we were Matabele. But after observing us a long time 
they took courage and ventured to approach our camp. 
' These are English people,' they said, ' and the 
English never hurt anybody.' This idea, which does 
honour to the English character, is met with every- 
where in Central Africa, even among the rebel Kaffir 
tribes." 

At Shoshong, which they reached on January 1st, they 
heard that Bushman, their cattleherd, had never re- 
covered from the illness which had obliged him to stay 
behind. He was a faithful and devoted Christian. He 
came as a volunteer to tend the cattle, saying he was too 
ignorant and clumsy for anything else. To tend three 
teams night and day, wet and fine, through such a 
journey, was no small task, but he never complained, and 
never once asked for help. Every day of his illness he 



284 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



had himself carried to prayers, until one day when they 
came to fetch him he said, " I pray no more, I praise," 
and died the same daj^. 

The people of Mangwato were experiencing daily 
panics, and were all in arms against threatened raids of 
the Matabele, who, however, never came after all. 

After two months' rest and waiting for instructions 
from Basutoland, the journey homewards was renewed. 

One thing is particularly striking in the history of both 
M. and Mme. Coillard, namely, their desire to " show the 
kindness of God " to all they met, white or black. Thus 
they were on the friendliest terms with most of the white 
men wherever they went, although very few were in any 
real sympathy with their purposes. 

Joubnal F. C. : — 

" Those who are attracted here by commerce or hunting 
give us humbling lessons. . . . Do they complain ? They 
never think of such a thing. Should we servants of God 
be less devoted ? . . . 

" Oh, how a servant of Christ ought to study to make 
himself approved of God and man, and not by any incon- 
siderate conduct to put any obstacle in the way of the 
Cross to which he would lead souls ! A missionary more 
than any other individual in the world ought to be 
prudent in his judgments, prudent in his words, to 
respect the man wherever he finds him, whether under a 
black skin or a white skin, decorated with a title or an 
aureole of power and riches ; so ought he to respect the 
man, the image (faint, alas !) of Divinity, even when he 
finds him fallen into the mire of vice and misery. That 
is what Jesus did. He was the Friend of publicans and 
sinners, and He was not ashamed to sit at table with 
them, and I do not know that He preached long sermons 
to them, and made them tremble by depicting the horrors 



1879] HOSPITALITY 285 



of hell ; it was for the hypocrites and Pharisees He 
reserved that. To these sinners and publicans He spoke 
by His kindness, His acts of mercy, and thus He won 
their hearts and prepared them for the gentle sound of 
the Gospel. There is a certain tact lacking in many a 
Christian of our days. . . . 

" The missionary must be hospitable. Hospitality is 
one of the charms of African life. But woe to the ser- 
vant of Christ who is not hospitable in the sense of the 
Gospel and in the spirit of the Gospel. We have received 
strange characters in our own house, some who were out- 
laws and others who were expiating their crimes in 
shackles. Under our roof we never took any extra- 
ordinary precautions. "We endeavoured to make all our 
guests feel, whether they were governors or adventurers, 
that they were welcome, and that for a reasonable time 
our home was their home, and never have we had cause 
to regret it. Only the minister of Christ must lay him- 
self out to do good, to raise, and in some way set afloat 
again this outcast, against whom society pitilessly casts 
stones." 

It was a great happiness to them to have been of use 
to the chivalrous Serpa Pinto, who accompanied them 
to Deka. Here their ways parted, he going on to the 
Victoria Falls and Pretoria. 

The Portuguese explorer records in the story of his 
travels the impression made upon his mind by 
"this new type of humanity," and "the superhuman 
tranquillity of his courage," of which quality he had 
better opportunities of judging than most people. What 
chiefly amazed him was M. Coillard's travelling without 
having recourse to arms, " with nothing but a switch in 
his hand, scarcely strong enough to make a way through 
the obstructing grass." As a matter of fact, experience 



286 COILLARD OP THE ZAMBESI 

has shown that this is the only right and possible method 
in Africa, but it was not the method of the Portuguese. 

" At times," he said (in his book of Travels), " M. Coillard produced 
the most extraordinary effect on me : there was something in him 
that surpassed my intelligence. One day he was relating one of the 
most agitating incidents of his journey, and concluded, ' We were 
within an ace of destruction.' 'But,' I replied, 'you had arms, an 
escort — ten devoted followers resolute in your defence ! ' He shook his 
head and said, ' I could only have saved myself by shedding blood, and 
never would I kill a man to save my own life, or even lives dear to 
me.' These words revealed to me a human type quite new to me, 
and which I am incapable of understanding, though I admire it with 
all my heart." 

M. Coillard, however, would never allow himself to be 
called "brave" or " heroic." "I have always hated 
adventures," he once said, " and I am certainly quite 
blase now in that respect." To him they were so many 
obstacles interposed between himself and his object. 
Moral courage he had in the highest degree ; not a man 
on earth could intimidate him ; and he would face any 
risks without appearing to notice them. But just as an 
earthly commander can only promise victory if his plan 
of campaign is carried out by all concerned, so he believed 
that the Divine promises were indissolubly bound up with 
the Divine plan : and he dreaded lest, by departing from 
the one he should forfeit the other. Thus every crisis 
was to him a spiritual crisis : preceded by the apprehen- 
sions and followed by the depressions to which his vivid 
imagination and highly-strung temperament exposed him, 
though he was perfectly cool while the emergency lasted. 
The consciousness of this made it distressing to him to 
hear friends with more good will than good taste vaunt 
him as a hero in public assemblies. 

While in Europe a friend read to him one day the 
description just received of Mr. Khodes' famous interview 



1879] LEAVING SHOSHONG 287 



with the Matabele chiefs which brought the war to a 
close. "How extraordinarily courageous!" was his 
comment ; " I do admire a man who can do such a heroic 
thing ; I could not." " But you have done the same sort 
of thing over and over again," exclaimed his companion. 
"Not at all. We never courted danger; if we encoun- 
tered it, we knew we were doing God's work, and could 
count on His promises, and so it required no courage at 
all." " But it was not just sitting still and letting angels 
take care of you ; you had to keep your head and act." 
He replied, " All we did was simply each time the only 
thing possible to do in the circumstances." After a 
moment he added, " No ! what was committed to us 
required no heroism, or I should certainly not have been 
the man for it. People do not know the apprehensions, 
the inward trembling, that I know. . . . She was the 
heroine, if you like — she never knew fear." 

This estimate of himself was characteristic, but it was 
mistaken. What he lacked was self-confidence. He 
hated, almost dreaded, having to assert himself. As to 
his being deficient in courage, the idea is grotesque. 

Just as they were leaving Shoshong the post reached 
them. Of course their correspondents did not know in 
what sorrowful circumstances their letters would arrive ; 
and these were the last drop in their cup. All the letters, 
whether from Paris or Basutoland, Committees or private 
friends, expressed strong disapproval of the journey to 
the Zambesi, and displeasure at its having been under- 
taken. As for a mission there, it was out of the 
question. 

Journal F.C. : — 

" So here I am, returning from an expedition which is 
disapproved, with heavy expenses, unsatisfactory results, 
and leaving two [three] tombs behind me. Quoiqu'il en 



288 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



soit, mon time se repose en Dieu. All that saddens me, 
but does not make me in the least regret the journey. 

" Some accused me of having pressed on to the Zambesi 
out of pride, self-will, and vainglory. Mr. X. thinks we 
ought not to have sent any message to Lo Bengula, nor 
responded to the summons, but to have let ourselves all 
be massacred by the Banyai. Mr. A. said it was ex- 
tremely imprudent to have gone at such a season. 
Imprudent ! Of course ! How very imprudent is the 
soldier who stands sentry night after night, exposing 
himself to cold, rain, dew, and sickness. The Saviour 
has said, ' He that loveth his life shall lose it.' £ On 
His Majesty's Sbevice.' He keeps the souls of His 
beloved ! And when He wants me no longer, He will 
put me aside, but He will not reject me. He will receive 
me to glory. Who shall fear ? . . . 

" Every one may judge of our expedition as he thinks fit. 
I am none the less convinced that the Lord in the secrets 
of Providence has some end in view. Two years of 
journeys and efforts and prayers cannot be in vain. Only 
believe, and thou shalt see the glory of God." 

Only one letter received by this momentous mail 
brought the least encouragement to him — it was one 
addressed by the Kev. W. G. Lawes, of the L.M.S., New 
Guinea, to Mme. Coillard, who had gone out with him 
and his wife in the John Williams (1860). 

"Port Moresby, September 18, 1877. 
" I remember you perfectly as you were then, and have sometimes 
been helped and strengthened by the remembrance of your strong 
faith. . . . Our work on Savage Island was very delightful. 'All 
work for Christ is that,' you will say, and so indeed it is, but it had 
in it that which human nature rejoices in — a large measure of success 
and prosperity. It was my happiness to baptize upwards of one 
thousand converts, to train a band of young men who are now at 
work as pastors on their own island, and as pioneers on this and other 



1879] PROPHETESS MOCHACHE 289 



heathen [islands] , and, above all, to translate into their language the 
whole of the New Testament and part of the Old. ... J felt sorry 
to leave the work on Savage Island, but the call to harder work, more 
self-denying work, is an honour from the Master's hands. Does He 
not in this way deal with His servants ? Is not the reward of service 
in His Kingdom more service, harder service, and {measured by 
human standards) less successful service ? We deal just so with 
our children, and we ought not to repine when our Father calls us 
from some loved, congenial work to something more arduous and 
difficult." 

These words at such a time came to them — to M. Coil- 
lard especially — as a message straight from God. It was 
not the only time that a letter, apparently quite acci- 
dental, opportunely shed light upon his path, and showed 
him, as he himself would say, how real is the Communion 
of Saints, and what a myth is the supposed rivalry of 
sects and societies, when each other's experiences, suc- 
cesses, and even apparent failures teach such lessons of 
faith and obedience in God's service. 

The criticisms levelled at the proposed Zambesi Mission 
had not been altogether negative. Several advised that 
an effort should be made to place the Basuto catechists in 
a certain unappropriated corner of the Zoutpansberg, the 
residence and sanctuary of the prophetess or pythoness 
Mochache (or Mejadji), and accordingly he went thither. 
He left his wife and niece at Valdezia, where they had 
found the whole of the two missionary families laid down 
by sickness, each with a new-born baby. Mme. Coillard 
took up the nursing, while her niece devoted herself to 
the children. All recovered except Mme. Berthoud, a 
beautiful and devoted woman, whom they had the sad 
privilege of laying in the grave. 

The prophetess Mochache (or Mejadji) is a mysterious 
personage, living in a cave, whence she utters oracles. 
None are allowed to approach her except the priests, who 
perform rites under her direction. She is credited with 

20 



290 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the gift of immortality. At any rate she is always there, 
and always a woman, but always invisible. "She" is 
still in existence, and her utterances are perhaps destined 
to have a greater influence on South African history and 
the future of the native races than most people realise. 
M. Coillard's account of his visit to this sibyl is too long 
to quote in detail. She energetically refused to receive 
Christian missionaries. " I have my god and I am his 
priestess. I do not want you or your God. Besides, 
your week has only seven days, mine has eight, so how 
could we ever get on together? If I allowed you to come 
here either you would be made a prisoner or you would 
ruin my authority." 

Evidently that door was effectually shut, but the Con- 
ference of the L.M.S. in South Africa warmly invited 
them to place the Basuto catechists at Seleka on the 
borders of Bechuanaland. This was accordingly done, 
after which the expedition pursued its way home, through 
the Transvaal. 

It was a very critical time in South Africa (1879) . The 
Zulu War and the awful slaughter of over eight hundred 
British troops at Isandlwana by the Zulus had stirred 
up all the kindred tribes. No one will need reminding 
that it was also a moment of intense excitement in the 
Transvaal, and of this M. Coillard's journals hold many 
interesting records. The natives of the Zoutpansberg 
were in arms against the Government, and among them 
the party had several adventures and narrow escapes 
from the attacks and menaces of the chief Malaboch 
and one Thateli. But it was the news from Zulu- 
land which affected them most painfully, and espe- 
cially the death of the Prince Imperial, whom M. 
Coillard had so often seen in Paris, driving as a little 
infant on his nurse's knee, amid the greetings of the 
people. 



1879] THE RETURN JOURNEY 291 



Journal F. C. : — 

" Wonderfontein, May 23, 1879. 
" I do not know Sir Bartle Frere personally, but he must 
be as amiable as he is a skilful politician. He makes 
friends everywhere. At Wonderfontein I was admiring 
on the table one of the finest Dutch Bibles I have ever 
seen : a book as big as a man could carry, and all illus- 
trated. On turning it over at the place where the gene- 
alogy of these good people is set forth, I found also two 
beautiful photographs of Sir Bartle Frere and his staff. 
' " Bartle " gave them to me himself with his own hand,' 
said the old lady with a ray of pride, ' and he also sent 
me this workbox. He is a fine man, Frere ; he slept in 
this very room, &c.' " 

The returning wanderers met with a cordial welcome 
in every town they passed through. Every one wanted 
to hear about the prospects offered by the newly visited 
lands. At Pretoria the Rev. Mr. Bosman received them 
into his house, and organised a lecture, at which M. Coil- 
lard described his travels, in the very hall where his 
native companions had appeared as prisoners three years 
before. At Pot chef stroom they addressed the first mis- 
sionary meeting ever held in the town (June 1, 1879). 

Journal F. C. :— 

" Kimberley, June, 1879. 
" On Monday evening I gave a lecture at the Wesleyan 
Church, under the presidency of the Administrator, 
Colonel [now Sir C] Warren. . . . Mr. Calvert [the 
organiser] did not feel free to ask for a collection. . . . 
Having extraordinary expenses for repair of waggons, we 
had made it a special subject of prayer. The Colonel was 
the only one who remembered us, and sent <£5 specially 
for repairing the waggon. Mr. C. also sent us £2 10s." 



292 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Mine. Coillard wrote from Leribe (August 31, 1879) : — 

"We have had a most hearty welcome from all our 
friends in Basutoland, white and black, high and low — all 
have cordially rejoiced in our return. 

" As for our beloved home, it is more lovely and attrac- 
tive to us than ever, especially at this season of spring, 
when the garden is all ablaze with peach and almond 
blossom. Every one admires this station, the church, 
the house and garden. All the members of the Anglican 
Mission came to see us." 

The first Sunday M. Coillard preached on the Eeturn 
of the Spies from Canaan. 

In their last meeting together the catechists prayed 
that "to them might be given eyes that looked back- 
wards, that the windows of their secret closet might 
be always open towards the regions whither they were 
returning." M. Coillard's journal of November 12, 1879, 
records " Deficit wiped out. Excellent spirit of giving 
for the [new] mission among the Leribe Churches." 

As far as he himself was concerned, the mission to the 
Barotsi of the Upper Zambesi was absolutely determined 
upon. He felt convinced that God was calling the Basuto 
Christians to evangelise in a country where their own 
language, their own Bible, and their own books would 
all be available from the first. Mme. Coillard had not as 
yet an independent conviction on the subject (though 
afterwards she had it as strongly as himself), but she was 
more than willing, as always, to act upon his. On 
December 7th they left Leribe for their long-delayed 
furlough in Europe. 



CHAPTEK XVI 



IN EUEOPE 



1880-1882 



Campaign on the Continent — Opposition to the Barotsi Mission — The 
policy of faith — " Quelque chose de palpitant!" — Sympathy in 
England, Scotland, and elsewhere — " Portugal embraces you ! " — 



Dr. Moffat. 

March 9, 1880, M. and Mme. Coillard reached 



V-/ Paris, and then began, instead of a rest, a campaign 
in many respects harder than their African experiences. 
They themselves were convinced that Divine Providence 
called them, as well as the Basuto Church, to evangelise 
the Zambesi tribes. 

The Paris Committee, however, did not see its way to 
assume fresh responsibilities, but finally gave its moral 
support to the undertaking and agreed to receive con- 
tributions for a special fund which the Coillards must 
raise themselves for the expedition and for the subse- 
quent support of its European members. The Basuto 
catechists were to be maintained by their own country- 
men. This arrangement is still in force. The Barotsi 
Mission has never received one penny from the General 
Funds of the Paris Society; all has been raised personally 
by M. Coillard or by his supporters. This was a new 
experience for him, and at his age it was a hard one. 
His very sensitive nature shrank from the necessity ; he 




293 



294 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



could not endure to be known as a beggar or collector. 
It seemed to him to be putting the work of God in a false 
position. The principles upon which the China Inland 
Mission had been launched by Hudson Taylor had sunk 
deeply into his mind — the "policy of faith." At first he 
had strongly disapproved them, but now they seemed to 
be revealed to him as those on which he was to act. He 
would not plead for his mission, as if for some romantic 
charity ; he presented the claims of Christ the King, to 
whom God said, " I will give Thee the heathen for Thine 
inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for Thy 
possession " ; he urged the last command of our Lord, 
" Preach the Gospel to every creature." He believed that 
to disregard of this command the deadness of Protes- 
tantism was largely due. Like Gideon, he asked for a 
sign, some large gift to show him if he were right in 
persisting in the new task. Almost immediately £1,000 
was given, and the example thus set was followed by 
others. From that time a real spiritual transformation 
throughout the Continental Churches has everywhere 
accompanied the awakening of missionary zeal. The 
small body of French Protestants who, in 1880, thought 
the Basuto Mission too great a burden, now supports 
workers and schools in seven fields, including Mada- 
gascar ; and, while Swiss Christians contribute largely 
to the Barotsi Mission, the Basle and Lausanne Societies 
have received an impetus from his broad advocacy of 
missions, first in 1880-2 and again in 1896-8. It has 
been the same in the Waldensian Valleys. "What 
would our Beformed Churches have become without M. 
Coillard and without missions ? " said an elderly French 
Christian to the writer in 1901. " Nothing but a tomb ! " 

Among the numerous young men and women who 
have joined these missions within the last few years a 
large proportion — in France the majority — have declared 



1880-1] SOMETHING EXCITING 295 



that they owed their first inclinations to hearing and 
seeing M. and Mme. Coillard in their childhood; and 
perhaps this inspiration of young hearts may prove to 
have been their greatest achievement. 

It could not be done without hard work. Both were 
worn out in mind and body, yet the only rest they had 
was during five weeks spent in Scotland with Mme. 
Coillard' s relatives. Their journals record that all the 
rest of the time they were travelling and addressing 
public and private meetings two or three times a day, 
and seldom staying more than one or two nights in any 
one place. Every one wanted to see them, but very few 
wanted to help their work. France was only just recover- 
ing from the effects of the Franco-Prussian War, hence 
money was badly needed for many good objects at home. 
So while they were everywhere lionised, invitations 
calling them to address religious and scientific assemblies 
in every part of the country, and while their achieve- 
ments were lauded as " a glory to France and to French 
Protestantism," in many quarters they were given to 
understand that the idea of further enterprise was 
quixotic and even wrong. 

This attitude was most painful to them. At a large 
evening party a lady approached M. Coillard with clasped 
hands. " Oh, monsieur, racontez-nous quelque chose de 
palpitant!" (Tell us something exciting!). 

" Madame," he replied sternly, " permit me to say that 
that is not what I am in Europe for." 

All was not empty applause, however. They made 
dear and faithful friends in France, Switzerland, Great 
Britain, Belgium, Holland, and the Waldensian Valleys, 
as well as in Alsace. The zeal of Major Malan opened 
many doors to them. In Glasgow Mr. Bichard Hunter, 
Mr. Ewing, of the African Lakes Company, and Mr. 
John Stephen, of Largs, who were among the first to 



296 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



encourage them, have never failed the Barotsi Mission ; 
and the same may be said of the late Mrs. Emily Hart in 
London. But for these and other friends the work on 
the Zambesi would not exist to-day. 

M. Coillard was presented with the membership honoris 
causa of the leading Geographical Societies on the Con- 
tinent — Marseilles, Lyons, Brussels, Paris, and others. 
The last-named adjudged him a medal. The Boyal 
Geographical Society of London never had the oppor- 
tunity of offering him any distinction, for, though it 
several times requested an address from him, other 
duties always interfered with his accepting the invita- 
tion. He was also presented to the King of the Bel- 
gians by the latter' s special request, and records in his 
journal the profound and philanthropic interest of King 
Leopold in the Zambesi regions, which, however, were 
not destined to fall beneath his sway. 

While they were thus wandering through Europe their 
path often crossed that of Major Serpa Pinto, who was 
being feted in other circles. He cherished a touching 
admiration for them, which he wanted every one else to 
share, and they were both amused and embarrassed by 
his persistent efforts to drag them into a public notice 
which they were very far from desiring. One day M. 
Coillard was desired to attend at the Portuguese Embassy 
to receive the Sovereign's thanks for saving the life of 
so valuable a public servant. Himself a very small man, 
he had to wait a long time in an apartment of over- 
powering size. At length the door opened to admit the 
explorer and the ambassador. The latter was a colossal 
personage, sword-girt, star-blazoned, and stiff with gold 
lace. 

" M. Coillard, who saved my life at the Zambesi," 
announced the Major in his most dramatic manner. 
The huge ambassador made one bound across the floor, 



1882] DEPARTURE FOR S. AFRICA 297 



seized him in his arms, and exclaimed, " Portugal 
embraces you!" M. Coillard, nearly suffocated, found 
it difficult to preserve the gravity appropriate to such 
an honour. 

One thing that gave them much pleasure was meeting 
their venerable friend, Dr. Moffat, once more, at the house 
of Mme. Coillard's brother. The present writer (pro- 
moted from the schoolroom to dine on so memorable an 
occasion) well remembers the tall, magnificent veteran 
with his patriarchal beard and his dark, brilliant eyes, 
He was upright and full of fire, despite his eighty-five 
years. They afterwards visited him in his own home at 
Leigh.* 

On May 12, 1882, they sailed for South Africa once 
more, in the Grantully Castle. 

* See Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat (T. Fisher Unwin), p. 276. 



CHAPTEB XVII 



THE GUN-WAE 



1880-1885 



The Gun-War — General Gordon — In the midst of Alarms — Settle- 



N their return to Basutoland in August, 1882, a grave 



V_y and deep anxiety awaited them, in the disastrous 
Disarmament War. In every part of the country the 
flourishing work they had left in 1879 was broken up : 
and until peace was restored, it was impossible for them 
to start for the Zambesi. 

This anxiety had overhung their whole furlough. Soon 
after the return to Leribe in August, 1879, the Cape 
Parliament had passed an Act to disarm all natives within 
its jurisdiction, because of the excitement caused among 
all the Bantu tribes of South Africa by the massacre at 
Isandlwana by the Zulus. The Prime Minister, Mr. 
(now Sir J.) Gordon Sprigg, had summoned a>pitsooi the 
whole Basuto tribe in October of the same year, at which 
he informed them that they must give up not only their 
guns but their assegais and all other arms in return for 
full compensation ; and also that the hut-tax was to be 
raised, in order that the Government might have more 
money to spend on schools, roads, and other improve- 
ments. 



ment of Basutoland. 




298 



1879] 



THE PITSO 



299 



The chiefs readily agreed to the raising of the hut-tax, 
but the other proposal they considered a breach of faith, 
and they said so plainly at the pitso. First, because when, 
in 1868, they had been offered their choice of depending 
from the Cape Government or from that of Natal, they 
had decided against the latter because it disarmed its 
natives, whereas the former did not. Secondly, because 
they had been induced to leave their homes in large 
numbers and go to work on Government railways or in 
the diamond mines, by the promises held out to them of 
earning guns. (It will be remembered that previously 
they had not been able to buy arms or ammunition at all.) 
Thirdly, because this very Government had called upon 
them, only a few months before, to use these same guns 
in bringing to book a disorderly chief, Morosi. 

" As for the guns," said Tsita Mofoka, " they belong 
to the Queen, only they are in the hands of us who are 
her soldiers and her servants." So also said Nathanael 
Makotoko ; and Tsekolo Moshesh added : " We knew that 
by coming to the Queen's Government we should have 
full liberty. And now, what would become of our great 
confidence in the justice of the Queen's Government if 
now we are to be disarmed, not because we have done 
any evil, but just because our colour is black? The 
trust that Moshesh had in the Queen ! He died trusting 
her : he use to say that the Queen was the Sun of the 
World." 

Tsekolo Moshesh again said : " My opinion is that the 
doubling of the hut-tax is no burden and will tend to the 
progress of the country. . . . With all due respect, I 
wish to say that if the Government thinks that by taking 
away a few rotten guns it will prevent war, I do not 
agree with it. The real remedy is to take away all the 
causes of dissatisfaction that are likely to produce war." * 
See Report of Pitso (British Museum). 



300 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Another one pleaded, " Our guns are to us like the little 
things children care for ; we do not take them violently 
away, but when they grow older they cease to care for 
them, and when our people grow wiser and more edu- 
cated they will not care for their guns. Wait till then." 
"It would be better to leave the knife with them and let 
them cut themselves, than to draw another knife and cut 
them with it." 

To all these arguments Mr. Sprigg replied " that it 
was having guns, and not grievances, that made the Zulus 
fight the English, and made the French fight the 
Germans, and that the Government was taking the knife 
away gently by talking to the people that day and 
listening to their words, but that the policy would be 
carried out." 

The Basutos then presented a petition, which took a 
little time, and thus the storm did not burst till after the 
Coillards had left for Europe. The petition was refused, 
and the magistrates received orders to carry out the 
decree. They did so, loyally, at the peril of their lives. 

Sir Bartle Frere's biographer says (p. 383): "The 
Basuto chief Letsie obeyed the Proclamation and was 
followed by the industrious, semi-civilised, and progressive 
elements of the tribe." * In other words, by those who 
were most fully under missionary influence. Molapo, 
with all his faults, was one of these, as was Letsie, 
and in obedience to their lead, hundreds of natives 
brought in their guns. But history repeated itself. Just 
as thirty years before the headstrong sons of Moshesh 
(then including Molapo himself) had drawn down on the 
English power the defeat of Viervoets, so now did the 

* The same writer also says that it was the influence of the French 
missionaries which prevented the decree from being successfully 
carried out. It is difficult to reconcile this statement either with his 
own, above quoted, or with the facts of the case. 



1880] JONATHAN AND JOEL 



301 



younger and less responsible chiefs raise the standard of 
rebellion. These were, Lerothodi,* Masupha (who was 
old enough to know better) and Joel ; all reactionaries, 
promoters of heathenism, ceaseless opponents of Christi- 
anity. 

None the less were the missionaries blamed ; and that 
by both sides. The Basutos called them traitors, because 
they counselled obedience. The authorities accused them 
of fomenting rebellion, because they had endeavoured 
to prevent what they knew would lead to disaster, just 
as in the siege of Samaria the King of Syria and the 
King of Israel both blamed Elisha the prophet for all the 
misfortunes of the war. 

Unfortunately, just at the critical moment in 1880, 
Molapo died. Thus the loyal party lost its most 
powerful leader, and immediately the greater part of 
the tribe rallied to the rebels. From that moment the 
struggle, though it did not begin there, raged principally 
in the northern regions of Leribe and Thlotsi, and the 
chief protagonists were Jonathan and Joel, who were 
half-brothers, the sons of Molapo. Every one knew that 
they were deadly enemies, and only awaited an oppor- 
tunity to fly at each others' throats. That opportunity 
was provided by their father's death. The eldest son 
of his legitimate wife (Lydia Mamousa) was a homicidal 
maniac, and consequently Jonathan, her second son. 
had been named Molapo's heir. Joel, however, the son 
of the second wife, was the elder, and therefore felt 
himself aggrieved. It was the Nemesis of polygamy. 

* In latter years Lerothodi changed his attitude both toward 
the Government and the Missions, and supported both, though he 
never professed conversion. The writer was present at an interview 
M. Coillard had with him in 1903, where the aged chief shed tears 
recalling this epoch of his life, when he had turned against the 
Gospel, and saying his time for accepting it had gone by. 



302 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Both are still living and ruling. Joel, the firstfruits 
of his father's apostasy, has invariably ranged himself 
on the side of heathenism and against the powers 
that be. 

Jonathan, on the other hand, has always been a loyalist. 
He had been more or less under M. Coillard's influence 
from childhood, having been brought up in his own 
house for some years. Less rather than more, it is true ; 
for Molapo was desperately afraid lest he should become 
a Christian, and succeeded in counteracting any such 
tendency. He inherited much of his father's capacity and 
insight ; no doubt, too, his mother had helped to mould 
him. He has consistently preferred to be on the side 
of progress, law, and order, and if that was to his own 
interest, so much the better for him and every one else 
concerned. At this time it was not to his immediate 
interest to be loyal. Four-fifths of the Basutos rallied 
to Joel, attacked his own force and defeated it. This 
was in December, 1880. 

Canon Widdicombe says (Fourteen Years in Basuto- 
land) : — 

" The victorious rebels, having wiped out the chief 
obstacle to their progress, now carried everything before 
them throughout the entire district. There was still a 
small body of loyal natives left outside Thlotsi (the British 
Camp). These were the people of Manamasoane,* the 
French Protestant Mission, about six miles to the north 
of our own. Most of them were Christians, the fruits 
of the devoted labours of M. Coillard in years gone by. 
. . . These loyal Christians were under the command of 
Nathanael Makotoko, whose name is already familiar 
to the reader, and who proved himself to be in every 
way worthy of their confidence. Nathanael and his 
* The Coillards' Station. 



1881] DEMORALISATION 



303 



people, both Christian and heathen, were devotedly 
attached to the house of Molapo, and they resolved, 
happen what would, to remain faithful to Jonathan 
as his son and heir, They were now speedily marked 
out for destruction, more especially as their village was 
quite undefended, for it was situated close to the church 
at the French Protestant Station. Their village was 
burnt, everything they possessed taken from them, and 
they themselves compelled to take refuge with us at 
the Camp (Thlotsi)". 

Fighting went on between the British and the loyalists 
on one side against the rebels on the other, till in 1881 
peace was patched up between the Cape Government 
and the Basutos, with this result : The Cape had sunk 
£4,000,000, had lost many lives, had alienated the 
whole tribe, and had nothing to show for it. The Basutos 
retained their arms. Far, far worse from the missionary 
point of view was the ruin of the country. Schools and 
villages were destroyed and congregations scattered. Dis- 
cipline and police patrol being at an end, the unprincipled 
adventurers who abound on every frontier had brought in 
" Cape smoke " (brandy) wholesale ; and the Basutos, 
Christians as well as heathen, had learnt to drink it. 
The young men on whom rested the future hopes of the 
Church had many of them been drawn by perverted 
patriotism into the rebel armies. Others who were 
fighting on the loyalist side threw themselves none the 
less into the heathen practices, the war-dances, and 
"doctoring" that invariably rouse their worst passions. 
Nor were they any better than their opponents as regards 
drinking and other vices, which, sad to say, they learnt 
from some of their white comrades. Some of Natha- 
nael's own children were among those thus led astray. 

It was in another form just what had happened after 



304 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the battle of Viervoets. Then it was the chiefs who had 
reverted to heathenism ; now it was the people who did 
so, coupling it with civilised evils. And, irony of ironies, 
in both cases the originators of -all this trouble were men 
of the highest character and gifts, and possessing unusual 
sympathy with dark races and insight into native problems, 
as well as great experience. 

When the soldiers of the Government were withdrawn 
not a finger was raised to help the loyalists or compensate 
them for their losses, while Joel and Jonathan fought to 
a finish. Typhoid fever raged, from the number of dead 
bodies, horses and men, lying unburied all around. Canon 
Widdicombe says: " Small parties of Christians, headed 
by Nathanael Makotoko, would go out from time to time 
to give them sepulture." Poor Nathanael ! doubtless 
memory went back to his own sorrow over his first wife's 
dishonoured burial. 

Much as he disliked meddling with public affairs, it was 
impossible for M. Coillard to stand entirely aloof in these 
circumstances; for, on the one hand, his views were 
sought (though not acted upon) by those in power ; and 
on the other, his colleagues and Committee urged both 
him and his friend, Mabille (then in Europe), to make 
efforts on behalf of the Basutos, not that they might keep 
their guns (that was outside their province), but that 
their national existence might not be blotted out nor 
their land taken from them, and that the wholesale 
demoralisation then going on might be arrested. Mme. 
Coillard wrote : — 

" Sevenoaks, March 20, 1882. 
"We are overwhelmed by the news which reaches us 
from Basutoland. In fact, that is what has brought us 
back here to England [from France] ; the Committee has 
pressed us to hasten our return, and to come here to see 



1882] GENERAL GORDON 305 



what could be done among Members of Parliament who 
interest themselves in the Colonial question. Alas ! there 
is very little hope left of saving the sick nation and the 
country of our poor Basutos. 

" My dear husband has spent the whole day in town 
running after this one and that one, and seeing how 
a deputation would be received. It costs him much to 
give himself up to these preoccupations, for they are not 
to his taste, and it is only the desperate condition of our 
poor ' children ' that urges him to it, for he needs rest 
more than I can tell you." 

In all this, however, M. Mabille took the initiative, 
and if the French deputation did have any share in saving 
the Basuto nation, it was chiefly due to him. 

M. and Mme. Coillard arrived at Leribe in August, 
1882, during a truce. It was a sad moment. The village 
was a heap of ashes, the mission compound a waste. 
A few of their flock came to greet them, led by Nathanael, 
now grey and worn, but affectionate as ever. The whole 
of their own small property, cattle, corn, fruit-trees, had 
been pillaged. The congregation was scattered to the 
winds, and many of the leading Christians had been killed 
or had taken to drink. A month later, in September, the 
district was visited by General Gordon, whom the Cape 
Government had invited to come and persuade the still 
refractory trio — Joel, Lerothodi, and Masupha — to give 
in. He succeeded at first. Only Masupha still held out, 
and obstinately refused to accept either magistrates or 
police in his district. The sequel, which is well known, 
is told in the following letters of Madame Coillard : — 

To her Sister : — 

" Leribe, September 22, 1882. 
" Yesterday F. went to meet the celebrated Pacha Gor- 

21 



306 C01LLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



don, who has at last arrived. They had a long conversation 
at the Camp. In the evening he came to dinner, accom- 
panied by Mr. Orpen and Mr. Sauer ; they stayed till 
nine o'clock. The country is in a most alarming state, 
and we are on the eve of ... a civil war. 

" Leeibe, October 5, 1882. 

"On Tuesday . . . Frank and I went to Thlotsi 
Heights, the Magistracy, or the Camp, as it is 
now called. "We saw Mr. Griffith and Mr. Underhill, 
who are come for the Indemnification Commission. The 
former used to be Head Magistrate at Maseru. All these 
people, and many more whom we saw, were in a great 
state of excitement about what had just occurred, namely, 
the sudden and precipitate departure of General Gordon. 

"I told you that he had come to this country on a mission 
of 'peace, and was going about trying all he could to restore 
confidence in the native mind. One of his hardest tasks 
was to get at the ear of Masupha, who lived at Thaba 
Bossio in a state of open rebellion. He went there on 
leaving us last week, and while in a most interesting con- 
versation with this chief, in which he had succeeded 
beyond his expectations, he received a letter from Messrs. 
X; and Y., requesting him to quit immediately, as they 
were coming with an armed force to compel the chief 
to submit. 

" General Gordon handed the letter there and then to the 
chief, who laughed and said, ' This only confirms what 
I say, that it is the white people who try to force us 
to rebel.' 

"General Gordon was in a fury ; he went off, but straight 
for the Colony, and would not even stop at Mori j a while 
his mules were being fed ; he walked on, on foot in front, 
and would speak to no one belonging to the Government, 
though they went three times to try to have an interview. 



1883] JOEL'S MARAUDERS 30? 



On the road he met some native police, and he shook his 
fist in their faces and marched on his way ! ... In the 
meantime discontent and suspense and discomfort reign 
on every hand among our poor people, who do not 
know where to turn to find their friends or their foes. 
General Gordon is a very eccentric man, but a very upright 
one and a thorough Christian, so no wonder he cannot 
get on with people who scarcely ever speak the truth. 
We think he will return again with full powers from the 
Colonial Government to act as he sees best." 

Unfortunately this hope was not realised, and things 
were soon worse than ever. Mme. Coillard is here 
referring to some in authority, whose names are omitted 
from this record. Colonel Griffith and Major Bell, who 
knew the people, were overruled. Ten months later 
(August 12, 1883), she was constrained to write: " Oh, I 
don't wonder that General Gordon fled in disgust : so 
would any truthful and right-minded man." 

As for Masupha, he sometimes spoke to this effect : 
That he knew a Christian when he saw him, because he 
had once been one himself ! and doubtless it was to this 
insight that Gordon owed his life, since to the native 
mind his visit as an ambassador of peace with (appa- 
rently) an armed force at his heels was sheer treachery. 

As soon as General Gordon left, the war between 
Jonathan and Joel began again and raged for months, 
chiefly round the Government camp at Thlotsi and round 
Leribe station. 

Mme. Coillaed to her Family:— 

" Leribe, May 8, 1883. 
" How shall I tell you the distressing circumstances in 
which this past week has been spent ... to the whole loyal 
section of the Basutos ? On Sunday, the 29th [April], . . . 



308 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



just as F. was finishing his sermon the church door opened 
and a native policeman stood fixedly gazing at F. He 
immediately knew that something was wrong. . . . Joel 
was quite near at hand . . . burning all before him. 
You would have had a pang at your heart to see how 
the women made haste to run to the Camp, . . . they fled 
for their lives. Soon all was still around us, for all the 
men rode armed off to the Camp. . . . We could not 
sleep all that night, and next morning we woke up 
to see Molapo's whole village in a blaze. . . . What 
a spectacle ! . . . Then we perceived that there was a 
patrol on the top of our own mountain, looking down 
and watching every movement. We were in the greatest 
anxiety, and remained so till Friday the 4th, when these 
wild, fierce brigands descended upon us. They pillaged 
and stormed and tore clothes off the backs of the poor 
women who were near us. ... As for us who had such 
a quantity of our dear people's things in the house, we 
were in the very greatest dread, for had they got access 
to our hiding places and found native things they would 
have pillaged our property too. However, beloved Frank 
was able to master them, and to reason and even to 
prevent them burning the huts which have begun 
to appear round us ... to replace the ruins of our 
former village. Oh, what a day that Friday was ! 
They came back four times ; until the evening we had 
no respite. Then when it was dark we got out all our 
poor people's blankets, which we had hidden in our hen- 
house and in the kitchen, and we buried them in a hole 
in the garden. They were there four days, and then we 
were so afraid of their being injured that we dug them 
up again in the dark and carried them back. It would 
be impossible for me to tell you all the dreadful things 
which these savages who followed Joel have done ; some 
of them are too dreadful even to write, and yet they are 



1883] SUFFERINGS OF LOYALISTS 309 



quite true. ... It was on Monday that we had a little 
respite, for much to our surprise we saw all these 
hundreds of Basutos file along the road, returning to 
the stronghold of their chief Joel, and on inquiring the 
cause we learnt that they had misunderstandings among 
themselves. Joel was in great wrath against one of his 
subordinate chiefs called Matela, the latter having refused 
to enter into Joel's plan to burn the standing corn of all 
the natives who are loyal to the Government, namely, of 
Jonathan's men. Our kitchen has been full of people for 
the last fortnight, and we have claims of every descrip- 
tion — food, clothing, medicine, advice, &c. ; poor things, 
they are really like hunted sheep and have no one to turn 
to for help. 

"May llth. 

" Things go from bad to worse, and they really seem to 
threaten complete ruin. Except the Camp [the magis- 
tracy at Thlotsi] we don't know of a single village existing 
in the whole of this immense district represented by 
35,000 souls ; all have been burnt either by Joel's or 
by Jonathan's followers. There is a dear young woman, 
Berenice, a member of our Church, who has been bed- 
ridden for many months ; well, they wanted to tear the 
blankets from her and to burn the hut, and M. Gautier 
and M. Jeanmairet had to watch in turns for a whole day 
to prevent them carrying out their plan." 

Old men were murdered and children mutilated in the 
very garden of the mission house where they had fled for 
refuge. Berenice was Nathanael's daughter, hence, no 
doubt, the enmity shown to her by the rebel army. The 
burning of his father's house by Joel was an act of 
unparalleled atrocity in the eyes of the Basutos ; it was 
insulting his manes. The maltreatment of non-com- 
batants, too, and the burning of com were something 



310 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



quite new in Basuto warfare, and a proof of their utter 
demoralisation since the strong hand of Moshesh had 
been withdrawn from them. 

No wonder it was said, "How can people go to the 
Zambesi when there is still so much to do in Basuto- 
land? " Notwithstanding this, the greater the opposition 
round them, the stronger waxed the conviction that the 
Barotsi must be reached then or never. At last the 
£5,000 needed for the expedition had been secured, and 
it started on January 2, 1884, but in most depressing 
circumstances. 

The catechists were still ready to return to the Zambesi, 
but it was difficult to arouse even the slightest interest 
in what the Basutos had loudly called their own mission 
a few years earlier — difficult to find hired servants willing 
to brave the desert journey in place of the eager volun- 
teers of a few years back. The long delay had chilled 
enthusiasm both in France and in Africa, with the usual 
results, and M. Coillard was constrained to write, " A 
missionary enterprise is not like a balloon, launched into 
the air amid admiring crowds and then left to take its 
chance." 

" But tasks in hours of insight willed 
Can be through days of gloom fulfilled." 

The Bev. and Mrs. Weitzecker, the first missionaries 
ever sent out by the Waldensian Church, replaced them 
at Leribe and restored the scattered flock. 

On November 29, 1884, &pitso of all the chiefs joyfully 
accepted the offer of the Cape Colony that they should 
be governed as a Crown colony under Imperial control. 
Jonathan and Joel had each his own district assigned 
to him. Sir Marshall Clarke was appointed Besident. 
Since then affairs have gradually righted themselves. 
The country has been administered on the lines coun- 



1883] BASUTO PROSPERITY 311 



selled by General Gordon, though disregarded at the 
time. Basutoland is now the most prosperous, loyal, 
and orderly of African Protectorates, and the Govern- 
ment fully acknowledges that this is due in great 
measure to the work of the missions there. 

One-tenth of the inhabitants are either Christians or 
under Christian instruction in the schools of the French or 
of the Anglican Churches. They are the most industrious 
of the natives, and export one sack of corn per head of 
the population, or five sacks per family every year. The 
country pays the whole cost of its administration, with a 
large surplus for education and public works. The only 
serious problem it presents is that "of Naboth's Vine- 
yard. God grant that nothing may shake the peace and 
confidence of this happy nation. 

Summing up of the Work in 1906. — The 22 stations of 
Basutoland have now 194 out-stations and 203 schools, 9 native 
pastors, 18 European missionaries directing them, 10 European 
teachers or directors of normal and other schools, 253 native 
teachers and 187 evangelists or catechists labouring in the dif- 
ferent out-stations. There are 15,774 Church members, 7,057 
catechumens preparing for membership, in all 22,831 converts, and 
11,673 scholars in the schools. These Church members contribute 
towards the general expenses of the work in Basutoland an annual 
sum of about £4,000. 



CHAPTEE XVIII 



THE SECOND EXPEDITION 



1884-1886 



Arrival at the Zambesi — Mr. Waddell — Khama — Civil war and 
anarchy — The Sesheke Mission Station founded — Visit to the 
Usurper — Lewanika returns to power — Second visit to the 
capital — Westbeech — Sefula station founded. 



-L on January 2, 1884, consisted of M. and Mme. 
Coillard, their niece, Elise Coillard, M. Jeanmairet (a 
young Swiss missionary), two artisans, and two Basuto 
catechists, Isaiah and Levi, with their families. At 
Seleka's, which they reached a month or two later, they 
were rejoined by the two evangelists, Aaron and Andreas, 
whom they had left there on the return journey from the 
first expedition, so that altogether they brought four 
Basutos with their families to the new mission field. 
These were of the greatest value, and M. Coillard 
several times expressed the opinion that it was their 
presence more than anything else which inspired the 
Barotsi with confidence in the mission, just as it had 
inspired their traditional foes, the Matabele, with mis- 
trust. All the leading chiefs wished to have Basuto 
catechists placed with them. 

One of the two lay-helpers above mentioned was Mr. 




Leribe for the Zambesi 



312 



1884] 



MR WADDELL 



313 



Waddell, a young Scotch cabinet-maker, who stayed with 
them for ten years, and rendered inestimable service. A 
terrible and incurable disease common on the Zambesi 
forced him to return home crippled and blind for life. 
Though he never fully learnt the language he preached 
by his deeds more than many have done by their words — 
taught the boys sent him by the king to use their hands 
and tools, helped to build and plan the dwellings of the 
missionaries, and when the time came, their churches. 
Though he was devoted to them both, especially to 
Mme. Coillard, that motive alone would never have 
taken him to the mission field, a step he never re- 
gretted, in spite of all it was to cost him. "Yes, 
knowing all it was to mean, I would do it again 
to-morrow if need be," he said once in his broad 
Scotch, " and count it a privilege." 

The journey to Leshoma occupied eight months. 
Apart from the usual difficulties of crossing rivers and 
swamps it was free from adventure, only inexpressibly 
tedious. The year's crops had been poor, scarcity pre- 
vailed, and food supplies were everywhere at famine 
prices ; the smallpox, which was raging in the Transvaal, 
imposed a lengthy quarantine before leaving its borders ; 
the rains came on too early, and made the country im- 
passable. Seventeen of their oxen died, and their own 
two horses, besides four others whom the Basuto chiefs 
were sending as a present to Khama. Two of the Basuto 
children also died on the way, a still greater loss. 

At Pretoria they found the Government of the Bepublic 
again in power. The immense quantity of barter goods 
they had had to take with them, "the cumbrous purse 
of the Zambesi," was charged with a transit duty of 
£100. Two good friends came to their help, the Bev. 
Mr. Bosman and the late General Joubert, and through 
their influence the waggons were allowed to pass duty 



314 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



free. Mr. Bosman also organised a missionary meeting, 
the first avowed one ever held in Pretoria, at which 
General Joubert, then Vice-President, took the chair. 
All the Government officials were present, and some of 
them took part very warmly in the proceedings and 
afterwards showed them hospitality (as did the Anglican 
Bishop, Dr. Bousfield, and Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Bourke). 
Much was said about political missionaries who stirred 
up strife between white and black, and evangelical mis- 
sionaries who were peacemakers, and the staff of the 
present expedition and its leader in particular were 
unanimously classed with the latter. 

Arrived at Khama's place, Mangwato, they found a 
special messenger had arrived there from the king 
Kobosi (now called Lewanika), bearing letters from him, 
written by Mr. F. S. Arnot, the missionary explorer 
(now of the Garenganze Mission), who had been living 
for some months at the Barotsi capital, but who was 
just about to leave it on account of his health. In these 
letters Lewanika asked Khama to give him a black dog 
and one of his daughters in marriage (the last request 
was not granted). He also said that the Jesuits had 
been with him trying to establish a mission in the 
neighbourhood, but that for various reasons, " they 
were not after his heart nor after the heart of his 
people." "The one we are looking for," he said, "is 
M. Coillard, and I ask you, as a favour, to help him that 
he may come here as quickly as possible." This request 
Khama loyally complied with. 

If there is one man living to whom Barotsiland owes 
both the Gospel and a good government, that man is the 
chief Khama. He it was who persuaded Lewanika to 
receive the missionaries ; he it was who advised him to 
seek British protection for his country. When, in 1891, 
Lewanika' s principal councillors demurred at this, wanted 



1884] LEWANIKA'S CHOICE 315 



to tear up the treaty made in 1890, and threatened to 
depose him "if he became the servant of rulers," again 
it was Khama who sent a special embassy to address the 
National Assembly, warning the rebellious that Lewanika 
was his friend and ally, and that to go back upon their 
given word was not the part of men. 

Mr. F. S. Arnot's record of the circumstances confirms 
this view of Khama's influence. It is a curious picture 
which he gives : the African despot, with his alliance 
and the future of his country trembling between two 
fates just at the providential moment. 

" Lewanika seemed at this time to be in a very unsettled state of 
mind ; he had many enemies in his own country and some powerful 
rivals. My coming did not satisfy him, for I could not teach his 
people to make guns and powder, and it seemed a mockery to bring 
' mere words ' to a man who needed ' strong friends.' Sepopo, his 
uncle, had been killed by an uprising among the Barotsi : Nguana- 
wina, his cousin and predecessor, had also succumbed to the spear 
of an assassin. Lo Bengula, the king of the Matabele, had sent to 
Lewanika offers of friendship, with presents of shields and spears, if 
he would join him in opposing the steady advance of the white man 
from the South. Lewanika was greatly delighted with the shields, 
and inclined to accept Lo Bengula's advances, but I advised him 
strongly to seek rather the friendship of Khama, the Christian chief. 
So a letter was sent to him, in which the king asked for Khama's 
daughter and a black dog, as proof of friendship. Khama replied 
by sending a horse instead of his daughter, giving Lewanika to 
understand, at the same time, that he must join with him — not 
against the white man, but against the white man's drink, if he 
wished to be Khama's friend." 

It is the more remarkable that Lewanika should have 
made overtures to Khama, rather than have accepted the 
proffered alliance of Lo Bengula, since the former was a 
chief of not nearly the same standing as the latter. It 
was almost as if the Austrian Emperor, rejecting the 
offered alliance of England or of Germany, should 
approach a Balkan prince and accept his advice. 



316 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



However, shortly after this letter had been despatched, 
Lewanika's subjects had rebelled against him on account 
of his ruthless government, had driven him away from 
his capital and set up a king of their own, Akufuna, 
a mere boy, and Lewanika had taken refuge with the 
chief Libebe, on the Chobe River. 

At Panda-matenga, then the chief trading station on 
the route to the Zambesi, they found Mr. Westbeech, 
the well-known trader, still installed. He was the only 
white man since Livingstone who had been allowed to 
visit Barotsiland unmolested. Lewanika allowed no one 
to pass the frontiers. Serpa Pinto, Holub, and others, 
had all tried and had all been robbed, maltreated, and 
obliged to retire. They had published accounts of their 
travels, in which they could not find words to express 
the treacherous, degraded, and bloodthirsty character 
of the tribes inhabiting the regions of the Upper 
Zambesi. Westbeech owed his safety to the fact that 
when the Ma-Mbunda witch-doctors tested chickens 
with the moati poison to see if he should be permitted 
to advance, none of them died. Hence the Barotsi 
decided that his presence would be an advantage to 
the country, and granted him citizenship. Westbeech 
was pleased at the advent of missionaries, and he was 
particularly anxious himself to introduce M. Coillard 
to Lewanika. Indeed, he afterwards rendered them 
great service in this way. 

The actual situation was one which the experience 
of their previous visit could not have led them to foresee. 
Civil war raged on the north side of the Zambesi, while 
the people on the south side were continually threatened 
by the Matabele. For the moment further advance was 
impossible. 

The Jesuits, who had retired from Lealui, were also 
established at Panda-matenga, and with remarkable 



1884] 



LESHOMA 



317 



magnanimity showered kindnesses upon those who were 
destined to replace them. Leshoma, the former halting 
place, was reached on July 26, 1884, the same date as six 
years previously. As the deadly tsetse fly had removed 
from some of its haunts, they were able to fix their camp 
much nearer the Zambesi, only ten miles from its banks, 
on the top of a little hill instead of in the forest. Thus 
they were less exposed to danger from lions and other 
wild beasts. 

F. C. to Mrs. Hart : — 

" Leshoma, December 2, 1884. 
" X. and Waddell, those good men, who are hitherto 
one of the greatest blessings God could grant us, were 
putting up a little cottage of two rooms for us. We were 
both sitting in the moonlight, Mrs. C. and I, and talk- 
ing, when I perceived in her some emotion betrayed. 
' Why are you sad, cherie ? ' ' Don't mind it, but I have 
seen so many houses like this one, since I am in Africa, 
and we have been emptied of them all.' " 

Here they had to stay and endure thirteen months of 
the dreariest suspense, during which their lives and pro- 
perty were never safe for a moment. What Mme. 
Coillard wrote at the time of their first visit was even 
more true now in time of war. 

" We are far from enjoying the peace of the desert of 
which people so often speak. Ours has been the peace of 
Jesus in the midst of all our tribulations." 

Indeed, the peace of the desert, for such an expedition 
as this was, generally means the maximum of isolation 
with the minimum of privacy, the combination of loneli- 
ness with never-alone-ness. No one who has never 



318 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



camped or who has only camped for a few days' amuse- 
ment, can realise the utter misery to people no longer young 
of living month after month in a stuffy waggon and a 
tent open to all winds, scorched by day and frozen by 
night (there was often hoar frost and sometimes ice !) ; or 
imprisoned by incessant rain ; often feeling too ill to 
move, but obliged to rise, to attend to marketing and 
cooking and cleaning ; to eat coarse and distasteful food 
and drink stagnant water, when the daintiest dishes 
could hardly tempt the appetite of a fever convalescent ; 
overrun by rats, mice, lizards, frogs, snakes, and loath- 
some insects of every description ; and with all that, 
exposed to daily peril from wild beasts and wilder men. 
All pioneers have had to face these experiences more or less. 
The difficulty is not to bear it once in a way, but to con- 
tinue week after week, every day and all day. Courage 
and temper alike wear thin. The missionary longs to 
cast it all aside — that was not what he came for — to 
wrangle about a few beads, to take thought for his daily 
bread. People whose meals come up automatically three 
times a day can afford to have a soul above food. In 
Africa, one finds it bulk appallingly in the mental horizon, 
and the constant obtrusion of physical wretchedness upon 
one's consciousness exercises a most withering and 
materialising effect upon the soul. It is then that the 
word means something : " Take no thought for the 
morrow what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, for 
your Father knoweth ye have need of these things," and 
what would otherwise be a misery and a degradation 
becomes, as Mme. Coillard wrote, a daily reminder of 
His love. 

The question of transport and supplies was, and 
remained, a most complicated one, and terribly costly. 

As nothing else could be done, they made the most 
of their actual surroundings. Mr. Waddell and the 



1885] THE REVOLUTION 319 



catechists built some huts ; Elise started a school for the 
children of the latter and of the half-caste hunters, who 
formed quite a community there ; M. Jeanmairet went 
about preaching and teaching ; while M. Coillard crossed 
the Zambesi and pressed on at once to Sesheke, the chief 
town of the Lower River, to await the canoes and 
messengers the king was sending to bring him to the 
capital, Lealui. It was not until after incessant delays 
and disappointments he learnt that Robosi (Lewanika) 
had been defeated and driven into exile ; and he could 
not start for the capital till December. There on 
January 8, 1885, he was officially received by the new 
king, Akufuna. 

The National Assembly welcomed him cordially. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" Lealui, January 11, 1885. 
" They were very attentive while I developed the theme 
of ' Peace on Earth.' ' People who bring peace,' said 
Natamoyo, ' who would not receive them with open 
arms ? ' 

" Mathaha said: 'You are welcome, servants of God, 
you who bring us rain and slumber, peace and abun- 
dance. The nation is weary ; it sighs for peace. Here it 
is : we place it before you ; save it.' " 

M. Coillard's comment many years later was, "If we 
cannot save nations, at least let us save souls." He was 
privileged to bring salvation to both. 

Akufuna was merely the puppet of the revolutionists, 
and his reign proved short. Ten months after (October, 
1885), Bobosi (Lewanika) returned to power, and the 
rebels were put to death. 

Before this took place, the mission party had crossed 
the Zambesi and camped at the ford of Kazungula, on 



320 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



August 24, 1885. It was one step further into this 
fortress of paganism — a memorable date. A month later 
(September 24th), the first station was formally opened at 
Sesheke under M. Jeanmairet's charge, and in November 
he was married to Elise Coillard. 

If Leshoma was a den of lions, Sesheke was a den of 
robbers. The very first night after they had crossed the 
river, some fugitive women rushed into the camp and 
implored Mme. Coillard, who was alone for the moment, 
to save them, as the king's people had arrived to execute 
their men folk, and they expected to be killed too. As 
they had not even put their fence up, they had no shelter 
to offer the poor creatures, and before dawn these had all 
been massacred. 

Another time shortly afterwards M. Coillard saw a 
group whose lives had been spared, and who had been 
distributed amongst the murderers of their husbands and 
sons. " They look very sad," he remarked to the chief 
Katau. Every one burst out laughing. " Sad ! Who 
ever heard of a woman feeling anything ? The woman 
is man's property." But even so, her owners did not 
protect her. 

It was the same with slaves. In a normal, even 
heathen society, it is to a master's interest to see that 
those who serve him are well cared for. Our Saviour 
said, " How much is a man better than a sheep ? " but 
on the Zambesi it was not so. " A man is worth an ox," 
is still a proverb there : and at that moment the former 
was a much less remunerative possession than the latter. 
If (as often happened) the witch-doctor demanded " an 
ox, a goat, or a man," in order to make rain, the man's 
was frequently the cheaper life of the three. It was easy 
to replace him, so many chiefs were always being killed 
and their human chattels redistributed. Then there 
were the witch-burnings. M. Coillard wrote (on June 



1885] ANARCHY AND SLAVERY 321 



22, 1885), " In our neighbourhood, quite lately, no less 
than six men have been burned to death." It was the 
easiest thing in the world to accuse anybody of sorcery 
(i.e., working ill to his neighbour) ; and without even 
waiting to apply the poison ordeal, if he had no friends 
the accused would often be hurried to the stake. 

Complete anarchy reigned. The chiefs derived all 
their authority from the king, and when there was no 
king they had no authority : every man did what seemed 
right in his own eyes. Drinking went on from morning 
till night, and all night long. After 9 a.m. it was rare 
to find anybody sober. The drunken chiefs, spears and 
clubs in hand, would force their way into the mission 
huts and refuse to go. While the masters drank, the 
slaves ate — whatever they could find to steal — a sheep, 
chickens, oxen, nothing came amiss to them. A man 
would be invited to a feast and be murdered by his 
host for the sake of a goat or a few beads. The mis- 
sionaries were plundered at every turn. Even the 
traders (always excepting Westbeech) were demoralised 
by the state of affairs, and one of them told Mme. 
Coillard quite frankly that they intended to take all 
the ivory they could secure, to hunt elephants (a royal 
appanage) and to take possession of all the granaries 
they found. Another asked them to buy a little slave 
boy from a Portuguese mambari — his note lies before 
the writer. The offer was refused — on principle, 
though it was very hard to resist the little fellow's 
pleading eyes. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" Nevertheless it is something if, as they assure us, 
our presence here prevents the two parties (for and 
against Lewanika) from coming to blows and killing each 
other. The station is neutral ground, a City of Refuge. 

22 



322 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



When the chiefs of two parties meet, it is not to the 
village nor to their own houses they go : they prefer to 
stop just here and make shelters for the night. To see 
them sitting together and taking snuff you would think 
them the most intimate friends. But as soon as dark- 
ness succeeds to twilight they take their arms and flee. 

" One would think the very wild beasts knew we were 
unprotected. Crocodiles swarm in the river-bend, they 
attack everything. Our pigs fell victims to them long 
ago, and our dogs too. Now the hyaenas prey savagely 
upon our goats. And if it were only wild beasts ! . . . 
The thieves. ... In the night they force the best locks 
and the strongest padlocks. Did they not even take 
one of our tents to make setsibas (kilts) ? And to whom 
should we complain ? Who would do us justice ? " 

Yet Mme. Coillard wrote to a friend, " We have never 
been so happy in mission work as now." 

Journal F.C. :— 

" June 11, 1885. 
" Gordon has fallen at Khartoum, and two days after- 
wards the expedition sent to his rescue arrived on the 
spot ! It seems to us that we have lost a personal friend. 
Oh la politique, how cruel it is, and what evil Gladstone's 
Government does everywhere, in this country too." 

"July, 1885. 

" It is said that Khama and his tribe have been received 
as British subjects, thus the British Protectorate reaches 
the Zambesi." 

Mme. Coillard to her Sister : — 

"Leshoma, July 15, 1885. 
"How wonderful is the great blessing which Mr. Hudson 



18851 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 323 



Taylor has been the means of bringing to so many young 
men and to China ! If we had only his great and simple 
faith, we too might see such times for the Zambesi. . . . 
I have not yet seen any natives so callous and so utterly 
indifferent to anything outside their world. Their whole 
souls are absorbed in selling their produce and getting as 
much as possible. They never inquire where we come 
from or what we want to do at the Zambesi ; they are 
despairingly non-inquisitive. One day after the preaching 
a man came and said, ' Have not I listened well ? Give 
me a handkerchief.' And another day, when they made 
such a great noise that F. could not hear himself speak, 
he suspended the meeting, and they were so alarmed, 
and the chief came and said, 4 1 know God is angry 
because we did not listen : which of us is He going to 
kill to-night ?' " 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

" October 22, 1885. 
" What humbles me is to see men like those Cambridge 
students, MM. Stanley Smith, Studd, &c, who have 
gone to China, and who everywhere, on board ship, at 
Aden, in Australia, have brought souls to the knowledge 
of the Saviour. They are in earnest : they are men full 
of the faith and of the Holy Ghost. I who may not 
have much longer to live, oh, if only the Lord would 
baptize me anew with His Holy Spirit ! " 

The news of the counter-revolution reached them on 
the very day Blise was married, November 4, 1885. 
Lewanika had returned from exile, rallied his partisans, 
and had re-entered his capital after a hand-to-hand fight, 
which lasted a whole day, victory inclining now to one 
side, now to the other. Just as the usurper's troops 
seemed to be prevailing, a caravan of mambaris (Portu- 



324 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



guese dealers) arrived, and threw themselves into the 
conflict on the side of the lawful king. (Major Gibbons 
says also a Scotch trader, Mr. Macdonald.) With their 
aid, Lewanika conquered, and in return for their help, 
he granted to the mambaris special trading privileges, 
which they still enjoy in his country. The horizon 
seemed to be clearing. Lewanika' s sister and co-ruler, 
the Mokwae (queen) of Nalolo (who had already had 
nine husbands, none of whom, it was said, died natural 
deaths), expressed herself ready to marry Morantsiane, 
the leader of the opposing party, and thus to effect an 
alliance between the two factions. 

Chiefs came from the capital nominally to escort M. 
Coillard there. In reality it was a plot. These chiefs 
hid their followers in the woods, and during the night 
of December 26-27th, fell on Morantsiane' s village and 
massacred men, women, and children in revenge for the 
atrocities his relative Mathaha, the chief revolutionist, 
had committed on Lewanika' s family and supporters. 
Every one fled, even the Coillard's personal servants, 
and they wrote : " We do not know when these mas- 
sacres will stop, nor what will come out of this chaos. 
Living among such people, whose feet are so swift to 
shed blood, we feel our dependence upon God." . . . 

The Coillards enjoyed one advantage which very few 
pioneer missionaries have possessed : namely, a thorough 
knowledge of the language, acquired beforehand, and 
not that only, but also of the people's mind and ways 
of thought. But for this, which averted so many mis- 
understandings, it is probable they would have shared 
the fate of the Helmore and Price expedition in 1859. 
The presence of the Basuto catechists was also a great 
help. The esteem with which the Barotsi had regarded 
their Makololo protectors was transferred to them, and 
they took up from the first a certain position of influence 



1886] PRESTIGE OF THE BASUTOS 325 



and authority which rather overawed the Barotsi. The 
Basutos expressed a supreme contempt for the Zam- 
besians' want of dignity in public life and of decency 
in private life, and thus made the latter feel slightly 
ashamed of themselves, whereas if the white man 
criticised them they simply said, "You have your cus- 
toms, we have ours." Another thing which gave M. 
Coillard prestige was an extraordinary good fortune in 
shooting — extraordinary for him, that is, since through 
a defect of eyesight he was not always a first- 
rate marksman. (Major Serpa Pinto, however, says 
he was.) 

" Leshoma, January 3, 1886. 
" I had a good day's sport. As we were coming down 
we happened to kill a bird. My boatmen noted it 
silently. Coming back, at the first shot, I knocked 
down a goose, a duck, and two other birds, and my 
people looked at each other in surprise. Later on, 
with one charge, I brought down fifteen ibis, of which 
we picked up ten. ' Oh,' cried my Zambesians, ' that 
is a gun that knows how to aim.' Later on, I had 
the same good luck. Then my boys turned and said, 
' But you are a setsomi [sportsman] , and Sachika told 
us that a man of the lingolo [i.e., a reading man] 
can't shoot ! ' Thus my reputation is henceforth 
made. ... I was surprised myself to have enjoyed 
the day, so true it is that there is nothing like 
success." 

Lewanika soon sent another urgent message to M. 
Coillard to visit him, but this was easier said than done. 
At the capital his will was law ; at Sesheke, three 
hundred miles away, it was not so. Immediately they 
had heard of their sovereign's restoration, the chiefs of 



326 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the Lower Eiver had broken into two parties, the one 
loyal, the other rebellious, each determined to get the 
upper hand, but both afraid to declare themselves openly 
because they did not know the strength of the opposing 
party. On one point only they were agreed : neither 
their lives nor those of their slaves were safe, either at the 
capital or on the way thither ; and consequently nothing 
would induce them to supply the canoes and paddlers, 
without which the missionary could not travel. After 
five months' waiting, tired of continual delay and excuses, 
he quietly arranged to start on foot with two or three 
donkeys, and informed the chiefs he was going to Lealui 
alone. They were thunderstruck ; knowing how angry 
Lewanika would be at their neglect of his orders and of 
his guest. 

" 'You don't understand the baruti,' * said one of them, 
as M. Coillard and M. Jeanmairet left the assembly. ' If 
you do not go and humble yourself at once, they will blow 
their brains out. It is the fashion in their country ; it is 
a way they have of consoling themselves ! ' This was 
why Mosala followed me, smooth as a glove, and quite 
surprised, I imagine, to find my head still on my 
shoulders. [This was related by Josefa, a Griqua 
hunter, who had stayed in the lekhothla when M. 
Coillard left it.] He addressed Jeanmairet, 'I have 
honey for you, and two skins for the old missionary. He 
must not go on foot ; no, he is old, he shall have my 
own mekorro (canoe).' Two canoes with paddlers were 
placed at my disposal and I gave in, not wishing to 
seem as if moved by pique." 

At last, on March 6th (1886), he started. It was a 
terrible ordeal to leave his wife and niece a second time, 

* Missionaries, singular moruti. 



1886] RECEPTION AT LEALUI 327 



in such a land of cut-throats, even though they had M. 
Jeanmairet, the catechists, and the ever-faithful Waddell 
to protect them. The risk for himself also was very great, 
as he had to travel alone by canoe with the chief who 
had carried out the massacres at Sesheke, and who, for 
aught he knew to the contrary, might have received orders 
to drown him on the way up river. However, he reached 
the capital in safety. Probably he was protected by the 
reputation of ngaka (doctor or magician), which he had 
inherited from Livingstone in these regions. It is a dis- 
tinction which gives a man more authority than anything 
else in the eyes of the Barotsi. He had won this reputa- 
tion partly by his grey beard and venerable appearance, 
partly from the air of silent mastery inspired by his over- 
whelming sense of Divine direction. 

He reached Lealui in perfect safety, and on March 23, 
1886, he was formally presented to the king Lewanika 
and by him to the assembled chiefs at the lekhothla. Mr. 
Westbeech was present by his own wish to act as sponsor, 
M. Coillard could not refuse his kind offices, and he 
always remained the loyal friend of the mission. The 
name of Westbeech must never be forgotten as one of 
those who first inspired the Barotsi with confidence in 
white men and in the English. 

King Lewanika received him graciously, but only 
placed a filthy and dilapidated hut at his disposal. 
" How do you like your quarters? " he asked next day. 
" I think that Lewanika is a great king, but that he 
does not know how to receive a guest," was the reply. 
"Oh, have they put you into a bad hut? I must see 
about that," said the king, with much concern. Of 
course he had only been taking his visitor's measure. 
Few people since then have had to complain of his hospi- 
tality. 

The Gospel was preached to a large assembly on the 



328 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



following Sunday, in the king's presence, and the Ten 
Commandments were read, paraphrased to make them 
understood. 

"I felt specially upheld, and thrilled with emotion, 
when for the first time I exalted my Saviour in the 
presence of these poor Barotsi. I never felt His presence 
more. I spoke as I wish I could always speak. In this 
deadly climate, why should not God display His power in 
a special manner? My dear wife and I have particu- 
larly asked it of Him." 

This discourse, though doubtless it went up as incense 
to heaven, seemed to have but little effect so far as earth 
was concerned, and indeed even now after twenty years, 
very, very few Barotsi have heeded it. The real begin- 
ning of the visible work at the Zambesi was a conversation 
between M. Coillard and Lewanika a day or two later. 
The latter, though he had returned to his own, was poor 
and destitute ; all his property had been destroyed except 
his carved arm-chair or throne, he had no garments to 
wear, though the Barotsi for many years past had 
adopted the practice of clothing from the West Coast 
traders ; of his flourishing town hardly a single hut 
remained, ' ' Tell me how to govern my kingdom?" 
he entreated. The reply was — 

" Take the secret spear from under your cloak and 
throw it away ; renounce vengeance once for all ; attach 
your people to yourself by making their welfare your first 
object ; put a stop to theft ; give them justice, quiet 
sleep, and food to eat." 

" What are the riches of a kingdom?" asked Lewanika. 
" The wealth of mine is ivory, and soon there will be 
none left. What shall we do then ? " 

M. Coillard pointed out that the country was rich in 



1886] FIRST COUNSELS 329 



resources and the people industrious and clever : he 
had only to encourage the chiefs to till the ground and 
make it productive. "Above all," he added, "accept 
the Gospel for yourself and your people." Lewanika 
then asked if Queen Victoria were a Christian; and also 
cross-questioned him about Khama, whom he wished 
to resemble, and who was his personal friend. 

It will be observed that in all this counsel, except at 
the end, there was nothing distinctively Christian. 
M. Coillard had simply laid down the principles on which 
Moshesh had made Basutoland prosperous and conciliated 
his enemies, before he had ever seen a missionary. Of 
his own accord Moshesh had seen the impolicy of ven- 
geance and had done good to those that hated him. 
Those rebellious subjects who were cannibals, at first 
from necessity but afterwards from choice, he had 
not punished, but had lent them cattle herds instead and 
seed corn, bidding them live on the milk till their crops 
were grown. Thus cannibalism died out. To a horde 
of Matabele invaders he sent cattle, saying, " I suppose 
you attack me because you are hungry; eat and depart." 
They did so, and never returned. This is a very im- 
portant point to notice, because it shows the much 
lower level at which work among the Barotsi had to 
begin. It has taken all the twenty years that have 
elapsed since this advice was given to bring the Barotsi 
up to the social level at which the Basutos lived when 
mission work began among them, now seventy- three 
years ago. Indeed, the Barotsi are still far below them 
in all the social virtues except in sobriety. This must 
never be forgotten in criticising the slow progress of 
Christianity on the Zambesi. The Barotsi, apart from a 
few individuals, had not a vestige of such moral con- 
ceptions as fair play, justice, fidelity, and kindness, 
with which the Basutos seemed endowed by nature, 



330 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



though they did not always act upon them. The 
Basutos had no slaves : in Barotsiland all were slaves, 
and were only emancipated in 1906 under strong 
external pressure. They had the vices of slaves, 
which it is needless to particularise, and also their 
virtues, — politeness, subservience, and industry. The 
impression created on the mind is that the Basutos were 
really a primitive race on the upward path, while the 
Barotsi were a nation already in decay. 

The time for its rebirth had arrived, but the process 
even now is only begun. 

Journal F. C. : — 

"April 5, 1886. 
"Long talk with the king at his house. I feel more 
and more drawn to him. He is intelligent, somewhat 
childlike in intimate intercourse, and none the worse 
for that. When I said we should know each other better 
by and by, he looked steadily at me and said, ' You speak 
for yourself, Moruti : but when I once saw you that 
was enough, I gave myself to you, ka phetho (to the 
end) : it is my nature.' ... A man I pray for every day, 
how could I keep from loving him ! " 

Mme. Coillard to her Sister : — 

" Sesheke, Zambesi, April 28, 1886. 

"F. received a warm welcome [from Mokwae, the 
queen]. What amused [him] was her exclamation as he 
sat in her court : ' Oh, what lovely eyes you have, and 
you look straight at the people when you speak to them, 
not like Mr. S., who never likes to look at one.' 

. . . [After touching on the atrocities daily witnessed] 
Lewanika says he will kill all those of his enemies 
who are on the earth, and prevent their children in- 



1886] 



SEFULA 



331 



habiting it, even those who are unborn. Frank thinks 
that there will surely be persecutions in this land by 
and bye from what he has seen of the chief, but if 
we have ourselves great faith, perhaps by that time 
the king may have believed in God and given up all 
his cruel practices. Why not?" 

Lewanika begged his missionary at once to choose 
a site for the station and to ' ' bring our Mother to it 
as soon as possible." After so warm a welcome, there 
could be no hesitation in acting upon this. The site 
was chosen at Sefula, a hill about four hours' journey 
from the capital. In the existing state of things it 
would have been impossible to inhabit the native town, 
and this was the nearest suitable spot. When M. 
Coillard returned to his base at Sesheke, however, he 
found that Mme. Coillard could not leave her niece 
alone at Sesheke as soon as she had hoped ; he therefore 
took Waddell and another helper back to the Barotsi 
Valley to prepare a dwelling for her. His former journey 
to the capital had been made by river and canoe. This 
one was made by waggon ; it can hardly be said by 
land, for the whole country to be crossed was traversed 
by innumerable watercourses, through which they had 
to force the waggons, already worn out with the journey 
and the destructive climate, as best they could, avoiding 
the tsetse fly, which would have destroyed the oxen. Of 
course there was no road : they had to clear it them- 
selves. At the Njoko Eiver everything was upset, many 
necessaries were lost, all their salt and sugar destroyed, 
and countless other things ruined. It was their first 
experience of this, but by no means their last : in fact 
there never will be a last until the country is supplied 
with railways and bridges. Once past the Falls things 
are exactly as difficult to-day as they were then, and 



332 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



on M. Coillard's final journey to the capital in 1904 
he had more losses of this kind than ever before. 

It was not till December 15, 1886, that Mme. 
Coillard could leave Sesheke with her husband, who had 
returned to fetch her. They had that year celebrated 
their silver wedding, and they called this journey — the 
first they had made alone for many years — their second 
honeymoon. Although it was the rainy season, it was 
made without accident, as such a journey should be ! 
They were full of hope and joy at the realisation of 
their dreams, yet not without apprehensions too. At 
the first council they attended they learnt that these 
apprehensions were not unfounded. There was a party 
strongly opposed to their coming, and that party was 
headed by Narubutu, the Nestor of the nation, the pre- 
server of ancient customs, and Lewanika's staunchest 
follower. 

The problem to be solved was this : Were the new- 
comers magicians or sorcerers? For the sorcerer is the 
one who works ill to his neighbours by spells ; the 
magician, or ngaha, is the one who finds him out by the 
practice of stronger spells. Obviously the distinction was 
an important one ; just as obviously it was very difficult 
to draw ; in fact, the decision depended almost entirely 
upon the point of view. The Ma-Mbunda tribe, who 
were the recognised magicians, combined the functions of 
doctors, detectives, and divines. All unauthorised prac- 
titioners were consequently impostors, sorcerers, baloi, 
and ought at once to be burnt alive. 

M. Coillard did not know all this at the time, but he 
took the straightforward course, which, as usual, proved 
to be the safe one, and declared he was neither a magician 
nor a sorcerer, but a teacher and a messenger of God. 
The chiefs were sceptical. There had just been a total 
eclipse of the sun, followed by destructive storms, and 



1886] LIVINGSTONE'S LAST LETTER 333 



who but they could have caused this great miracle which 
had made the sun to rot and spoilt all the crops? 
Fortunately, though he possessed the Nautical Almanac, 
he had quite overlooked this, and so had not predicted 
it ; hence he was able to establish his innocence of such 
a crime against humanity and to disclaim the smallest 
power of working miracles. In that case they wondered 
what possible use could he be to them ? Liomba, a chief 
who had visited Khama's town, came to the rescue, and 
eloquently set forth the advantages he had witnessed, 
which were only to be enjoyed by a people that had 
missionaries. "They are the fathers of the nation," he 
exclaimed. "Let us greet them as Barotsi and as bene- 
factors. Let us help them, let us give them our children, 
but let us begin by listening ourselves to their teaching. 
It is to us, chiefs, that all our tribes look." 

Liomba carried the audience with him. The assembly 
thanked the king for the boon he was bestowing, and 
assured the missionary and his wife of their welcome. 
The Barotsi Mission was founded. 

Until the sojourn of Mr. Arnot and of the Jesuits, 
so far as known, no white man except Major Serpa 
Pinto and Mr. Westbeech had visited Lealui since Dr. 
Livingstone's visit to Sebitoane in 1851. Naliele was 
then the capital. He had called loudly for missionaries 
to evangelise this region ; the only response — the Helmore 
and Price expedition — had been a failure. Just before 
his death in 1873 he wrote to Mr. Gordon-Bennett from 
Central Africa : — 

" Having now been some six years out of the world, . . . the dark 
scenes of the slav'e trade had a depressing influence. The power of 
the Prince of Darkness seemed enormous. It was only with a heavy 
heart I said, ' Thy Kingdom come.' In one point of view the evils 
that brood over this beautiful country are insuperable. When I 
dropped among the Makololo [i.e., on the Upper Zambesi, Barotsi- 



334 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

land] and others in the Central Region I saw a fair prospect for the 
regeneration of Africa. More could have been done in the Makololo 
country than was done by St. Patrick in Ireland, but I did not know 
that I was surrounded by the Portuguese slave trade, a blight like a 
curse from heaven, that proved a barrier to all improvement. Now I 
am not so hopeful. I don't know how the wrong will become right, 
but the great and loving Father of all knows, and He will do it 
according to His infinite wisdom." 

Now, in this month of January, 1887, the hour had 
come to begin the work of deliverance. 



PART IV 

BABOTSILAND, UPPER ZAMBESI 



Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, 
obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence 
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made 
strong. 

(Of whom the world was not worthy) ; they wandered in deserts 
and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 

And these . . . having obtained a good report through faith, 
received not the promise ; God having provided some better thing 
for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. — Hebrews 
xi. 33-40. 



CHAPTEK XIX 



CHARACTER OF THE BAROTSI 

Character of the Barotsi — Magic — Traditions — The Chieftainesses — 
Craftsmanship — Constitution — Religion — Funeral Rites — The 
Future Life — Marriage. 

THE people among whom they were now called to 
labour differed totally from those they had 
hitherto known. M. Coillard wrote : "I confess that I 
am sometimes stupefied when I see the aspect under 
which the Barotsi display human nature. Hitherto I 
have witnessed nothing like it. The Zambesians have 
nothing in common with the Bechuana, but a basis of 
superstition, a black skin, and a dialect of their 
language." 

Does the character of a country determine that of its 
inhabitants? The question is a large one. Certainly 
the difference between the Basutos and the Barotsi 
suggests it. 

Basutoland is a mountainous country, a tableland 
built on a foundation of solid rock with a rich soil on 
the surface. The people are stolid, intelligent, brave, 
and strong-willed, possessing great powers of resistance 
and initiative, many social virtues, and a definite (however 
imperfect) morality. 

Barotsiland is a swamp. The surface, of fairly fertile 
sand, covers a subsoil so undermined by the infiltration 

23 337 



338 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



of the rivers which lose themselves in it, that in many 
parts it will not bear the weight of a brick house. And 
it is precisely in these swampy places that the Barotsi like 
to live. " They are crocodiles," as their king said of them. 
Their character was analogous : smooth and amiable 
on the surface, it seemed to have no solid basis ; a 
bottomless quagmire, into which lives and efforts have 
been freely poured out, for long, as it seemed, in vain. 
Now after twenty years, when it was hoped to see a 
church arising, the foundations are scarcely laid. And 
yet under Christian training such beautiful and admirable 
characters have emerged from this corruption, that it is 
impossible to lose heart, or to doubt the future of a race 
with such latent possibilities. 

These immense territories, nearly as vast in area as the 
German Empire,* stretching on both sides of the Zambesi, 
were inhabited by at least twenty tribes, all subject to the 
sway of the Barotsi king. The social fabric, though 
rent by anarchy at that time, was very compact and 
elaborate. It was a feudal system, indistinguishable 
from slavery. Each man depended from some other, 
and in turn had some one dependent upon him, down to 
the lowest. Those not free-born could not call anything 
their own, not even their wives and children, who were 
constantly taken from them and given to others. Not 
till this last year of grace was this system abolished 
and the slaves set free (July 16, 1906). A distinction 
must be drawn between the Barotsi tribe and the Barotsi 
nation. The nation included at that time about twenty 
different tribes, of which the Barotsi, or Marotsi, was 
paramount. Its members were all free-born ; all were 
chiefs of various degrees, and the executive was entirely 
in their hands. Other tribes had other specialities, e.g., 

* Reduced by Arbitration Decree, 1905, to 181,947 sq. m., Germany 
208,947 sq. m. 



1886] A MASTER CRAFTSMAN 339 



the Matolela were experts in iron-work, the Masubia in 
river craft, the Ma-Mbundas (who were not slaves, but 
subjects) in medicine and occult rites. But all existed 
for the benefit of the Barotsi. They held the monopoly 
of all privileges and all possessions. 

Religion is more developed among the Barotsi than 
among most African tribes. This is another reason why 
Christianity has progressed slowly. They had a com- 
plicated system, of which the king was high-priest by 
virtue of his office. Close to his court was a grove, 
surrounded by stretched cords, in which he celebrated 
secret rites on his own behalf and on that of his people. 
These consist chiefly in offering oblations to Nyambe, the 
Supreme God, symbolised by the sun ; and sacrifices at 
the tombs of his royal ancestors to propitiate their 
spirits, and to receive their oracular counsels given 
through a priestly medium. 

As already said, the Barotsi revered a ngaka, the 
possessor of magical powers, more than any other person. 
Military prowess did not seem to impress them nearly so 
much. They have little courage or soldierly instinct, 
though no doubt this could be developed by discipline 
and necessity. The fact still remains. The Matabele 
had to be crushed by force of arms before they could even 
begin to emerge from barbarism ; they probably under- 
stood no other form of superiority. The Barotsi, on the 
contrary, appreciated the powers of the white man from 
the first, and conquest, had it been necessary, would 
possibly not have produced anything like the same effect 
as the display of skill and wisdom. 

Their first king and traditional hero was not a War- 
Lord but a ngaka (doctor) and a Master-Craftsman. He 
overcame his enemies not by force but by outwitting 
them. Perhaps in this fact lies the secret of all their 
racial defects and qualities. As already said (p. 277), they 



340 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



have never apparently been a conquered people, but that 
has been due, not to their own courage and independence 
as in the case of the Basutos, but to their remarkable 
shrewdness in profiting by those qualities in others. 
Threatened by the Matabele in the first half of the 
century, they implored the protection of Sebitoane and 
his Makololo warriors, and became his servants ; and 
when the Makololo yoke became too oppressive, they 
freed themselves by means of conspiracy and assassina- 
tion. Finding themselves again hemmed in by enemies 
(not only the Matabele, but the unauthorised slave-raiders 
from the north and west), whom they had not the 
resources to repel, now that they had killed off all the 
Makololo, their rulers sought protection, this time from 
the British. It is in the arts of peace they excel, not in 
the arts of war. They are an extremely industrial people. 
In every kind of handicraft they outstrip all other South 
African tribes. They are also passionately fond of 
clothing, which they adopted quite independently of 
European influence. During the revolution of 1883-5 
their garments had been lost or destroyed, and the first 
thing all the royal ladies wanted Mme. Coillard to do was 
to make them new ones. " Before the war," said the Queen 
Mokwae, Lewanika's sister and co-ruler, " I had a most 
beautiful hat of grey felt lined with green and trimmed with 
red. And all the king's wives had them just the same ; 
and when we were wearing them over the handkerchiefs we 
tied round our heads, with our long dresses and our boots, 
really we looked just like men ! " 

This being the case, it is rather singular that they have 
never got beyond the most rudimentary attempts at 
spinning or weaving. In fact, they are firmly convinced 
that the white man materialises cloth by magic from the 
sea or the rivers. " Cannot you see for yourself," said 
one to a magistrate at Victoria Falls, pointing to the 



1886] BAROTSI INDUSTRIES 341 



fleecy foam of the descending waters, and the rainbow 
spanning the spray, " that is the stuff you weave the white 
cloth of, and there is the striped blanket making itself 
before your eyes." Hence, though bark, grass, and other 
fibres abound in the country, they have never made any- 
thing better than cord and netting out of them. Perhaps 
this is why they have never invented a costume for them- 
selves. Some day we may learn what is the effect on a 
race of contact with a higher civilisation when it has 
never gone through the discipline of a spinning and 
weaving age. 

The Barotsi had hardly any tools besides knives and 
hoes, but when they saw the implements used by the 
missionaries they tried to copy them, and succeeded ad- 
mirably in making knives and shovels, which they had never 
seen before. The Barotsi royal family possesses this gift 
of craftsmanship in the highest degree. King Lewanika 
can construct anything from a house to an ivory carved 
hairpin, and is an adept in basket work. Every year he 
reconstructs a wonderful state barge, the Nalikuanda, and 
launches it when the flood rises, with some new figurehead 
to excite the wonders of his people. It is manned entirely 
by chiefs. His sister, Queen Mokwae, among other 
accomplishments, has proved herself an adept in what we 
should call "poker-painting." 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

" Thursday, November 18, 1886. 
" Queen Mokwae, pointing with her finger to the 
doorpost, ' Do you see him there ? ' she said. ' It is 
Mathaha ! ' [the chief of the revolution, who had just 
been put to death]. And, indeed, I saw, burnt with red- 
hot irons in the wood, in quite the Egyptian style, the 
portrait of a human being holding his chin in his right 
hand, which, it appears, was a favourite habit of Mathaha's. 



342 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



■ Look at him well ! ' she shrieked, imitating his attitude. 
Is it a charm, or simply to glut her insatiable vengeance?" 

Mokwae's daughter, Akanagisoa, inherits her mother's 
talent of portraiture, and once painted a series of like- 
nesses in coloured earths on the walls of her hut, just 
like the Egyptian paintings in the National Gallery. It 
cannot be said, however, that the pursuit of Art has in any 
way softened her manners or made them less ferocious. 

The chiefs have their own arts, such as net-making, 
sewing, and basket-work. Their wives make pottery and 
mats, while the women of the humbler classes do all the 
agricultural work and plastering of the huts : they do not 
sew ; this is a masculine prerogative. It was the hunter's 
privilege to dress and stitch the skins of the animals 
he chased and to embroider a garment for his bride. 
Nowadays they make a European dress. The Prince Litia 
used to be his own tailor, and he made his wife's wedding 
dress, bright pink chintz with a broad yellow border. 

Journal F. C. : — 

The Barotsi. 

" This country in Serotsi is called Loanga Manye. The 
first king was Mboho of Ikaturamoa. He sprang from 
the union of Nyambe [the Supreme Deity] with a Morotsi 
woman named Buya Moamboa. He was of a pacific 
nature, and did not know what war was. He was more 
than anything else a ngaha (doctor). In his praisewords 
he was called ' Mboho nguana serundu' [? Son of the 
drums]. He adopted the drums which beat all night at 
the king's door and escort him to the lekhothla. . . . 

"Mboho being attacked by the Ma-Nkoyas, and being as 
he was an indifferent warrior, prepared a medicine. It 
was the bark of a tree which, being stripped, gives a red 
powder (? camwood). He mixed this powder with corn 
and some other mysterious medicaments, and then called 



1886] A WOMAN'S COURAGE 343 



for volunteers among his people to go and scatter it all 
over the path of their enemies. Every one refused, seized 
with terror, not because of the enemy, but because of the 
medicine itself. 'For,' they said, 'if it has the power of 
annihilating our enemies, why should it not kill us too ? ' 
Only one person, a woman, had the courage to come 
forward. She took the formidable medicine, and went 
bravely towards the enemy's camp, scattered it all over 
the paths, and cast the remainder to the wind in the 
direction of the Ma-Nkoyas, to such good purpose that the 
next day they were all dead and the Barotsi delivered. 

"The king then said to this woman, 1 To-day you are 
a man; you shall sit in the lekhothla as a man, and 
among your descendants there shall always be a n'kosi 
mosali (woman-chief) to take your place.' As a matter of 
fact, thenceforth she did sit in the lekhothla like a 
man. She took her place among the likomboa (personal 
adherents) of the king, and when she expressed her 
opinion she came, knelt near the king, clapped her hands 
[the equivalent of our Court curtsey], said her say, and 
returned to her place. And this position of n'hosi mosali 
in her race was kept up until the time of the Makololo. 
Old Narubutu is descended from this noble ancestress, 
and the position which his daughter Mahoana occupies is 
an effort to rehabilitate this family and this dignity which 
Mboho conferred." 

The name of Narubutu is a corruption of Ma-Eoberta 
(mother of Kobert), the native name of Dr. Livingstone's 
wife, whom this chief met at the Zambesi in 1862, and 
whose name he adopted out of compliment to her husband. 

Broadly speaking, the National Council at the lekhothla 
consisted of two parties, viz., the king and his likomboa, 
or personal staff, who always voted for his measures, and 
the other great chiefs, who, in practice, if not in theory, 



344 COILLAKD OF THE ZAMBESI 



formed a permanent Opposition, representing the interests 
of the nation. Both sides looked to the Ma-Mbundas 
(doctors) for guidance and bid for their support. The 
head of the executive was the Gambella, or prime 
minister. The king was supposed to be an autocrat, but 
two persons had the right of veto on all his actions and 
decisions, namely, his sister, the Mokwae (or failing a 
sister, his mother or some female cousin, nominated for 
the office, intended to be that of moderating his severity), 
and the Natamoyo, or Minister of Mercy, " who," says 
M. Coillard, "is always the king's maternal uncle. In 
polygamous states the maternal uncle is always a 
guardian ; and as the children grow older he exercises 
a sort of control over their actions." 

A representative of the king (if possible a member of 
his family) was stationed with each of the vassal tribes 
as prefect, to keep order and to see that the proper tribute 
in ivory, slaves, &c, was duly handed over to the 
revenue officers, who visited them every year to take their 
dues, to appoint them such tasks as skin-dressing and 
basket-work for the king, and to distribute in return the 
king's bounty — garments, guns, and so forth. The king 
was also supposed to take a wife from each of these sub- 
ject tribes, and their position at Court was that of diplo- 
matic agents. When the king wanted to know what was 
going on anywhere he sent a wife home to visit her family, 
and made much of her when she came back. Thus he 
found out all he wanted to know. It was his sisters, not 
his wives, who represented royalty on the social side, 
directed his household, educated his children in the 
duties of their station, and exercised hospitality. Chief 
of these was the Mokwae of Nalolo, who was always 
addressed by masculine titles, " Taii-tona " (Lion, not 
Lioness). 

The same order of ideas as to masculine and feminine 



1886] RELIGION OF THE BAROTS1 345 



functions pervaded their religion, as will be seen from 
what follows. All these conceptions were quite different 
from anything the missionaries had hitherto encountered, 
and the problem to be faced was how to find a common 
starting-point in presenting Christianity to them. 

Journal F. C. :— 

Worship. 

"From what I can learn, there are no tribes in South 
Africa among whom the religious sentiment is so 
developed as among those of the Zambesi. Among the 
Masubia [the boatmen tribe] they are even more pro- 
nounced. . . . This god (called Nyambe by the Barotsi, 
Keza by the Masubia, Chabombe by the . Batokas) lives 
somewhere above, not on the earth nor under it. He is 
always present, sees everything, hears everything. Before 
a hunting expedition, as also after a dream, or during an 
illness, they offer him a sacrifice of water, and some 
other things, spears, garments, beads, &c, but always 
water which is drawn quite fresh. It is put in a bowl on 
a mound of earth, and at the moment the sun rises, all 
fall on their knees, clap hands and cry ' Shangwe ! 
Shangwe ! Loche' ; the Masubia ' Marioso, Marioso,' 
and the Batoka ' Yo-sho ! Yo-sho ! ' Then follows a 
prayer suited to the circumstances : sickness, hunting, or 
rain. That day they do not work. All deny that they 
pray to the sun : it is not the sun that is adored {shangwe) , 
but he is the herald who announces that Nyambe comes 
out of his chamber, and is consequently accessible. The 
idea of watching for the sunrise is to be the first to 
present their petitions to this dreaded sovereign. In 
the evening, thanksgivings are offered in the same way, 
but the face is turned to the sunset. Nyambe retires to 
his chamber, and then they entreat Bina-Chabombi 



346 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



(otherwise Mota Eeza), who as his wife is supposed to 
have great influence over him, to present their petitions 
to this Sovereign Lord of the World. The heaven of 
the Zambesians is thus in the unknown regions whence 
the sun issues every morning and where he vanishes 
every night. There also go the spirits of the dead. The 
Masubia and Batoka are distinguished from all the other 
South African tribes by the respect they show to the 
dead. When a man dies they carefully perform his 
toilette ; wash the body, dress his hair, put on his finest 
ornaments and his best clothes ; he is borne respectfully 
to his resting-place, a long hollow, he is laid tenderly 
down in the position of one asleep, his head leaning on 
his two hands, and looking towards the sunrise, if a man; 
if a woman, towards the sunset. Then they place in the 
grave the ornaments which they think precious, cover 
the corpse with a mat and the mat with earth. On the 
tomb, if it is a chief, they plant elephant's tusks ; if it is 
a hunter, the skeleton or skull of the animal he followed 
most frequently, e.g., an elephant or hippopotamus ; if it 
is a man who worked in wood or iron, specimens of his 
craft ; but in any case the sepora (the stool) of the 
deceased, his wooden bowl, her mat for a woman, his 
pipe for a man : all things which are indispensable for 
going to Nyambe' s place. They also pour out frequent 
drink-offerings of beer, milk, and honey on the tomb, 
according to the measure of their love for the de- 
parted. 

" In general, no one dares address himself directly to 
Nyambe unless the litaola ordain it ; otherwise it is by 
an intermediary that he approaches him. Besides the 
goddess Mokata (or Mota) Eeza, there are the chiefs, 
who at the Court of Nyambe are charged with this duty, 
whatever may have been their character in this world, 
and however badly their subjects may have treated them 



/ 



1886] 



NY AM BE 



347 



in consequence. Thus they pray to Sepopa, the unfortu- 
nate Sepopa who died of hunger and his wounds on a 
desert island of the river. 

"The first days of a hunting party are carefully and 
religiously observed. After the usual offering and united 
prayer prostrate before the rising sun and around a bowl 
of water, no one would dream of hunting or doing any- 
thing else. The same ceremony is observed at sunset, 
and then, strong in the conviction that Nyambe has 
heard his prayer, the Zambesian takes his spear and his 
darts, and goes hopefully to seek what Nyambe has set 
apart for him. He never fails to find some antelope. 
After having killed it, he carefully collects the blood in a 
bowl, and presents it in the evening as a thankoffering. 
With the sacrifices ordained by the divining bones in 
case of illness (generally a sheep), the blood is always 
offered to Nyambe. Nyambe is the creator of everything. 
He planted the forests, hollowed out the rivers, and put, 
here the crocodile, hippopotamus, and fishes ; there the 
elephants, antelopes, and lions. He made man of the 
earth, say the Masubia, but when he made the black 
people of this country he was tired ; and, despising his 
own work, he gave these unfortunate creatures the 
assegai to destroy each other with. As for the white 
people, he made them the borena (lords), and lavished 
his blessings on them. The variety of nationalities they 
explain by Nyambe's polygamy, which he practised on 
a scale worthy of himself. Every nation took the 
character of its mother, a being of Nyambe's fantastical 
creation. Everybody goes to Nyambe at death except 
the baloi (sorcerers) , who are burned (on earth) , and who 
are destined to wander eternally in a frightful and 
waterless desert. Like the French, the Barotsi have 
shown in certain cases how much value they attach to 
royalty. That does not prevent their surrounding it 



348 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



with religious respect. The king is Nyambe's servant, 
and among his privileged faculties is that of being able 
to dazzle his enemies and to make himself invisible. It 
is thus that Kobosi's (Lewanika's) flight is explained, and 
his safety, which he owed to his own coolness, and the 
skill with which he availed himself of the prestige 
which in the eyes of the common herd surrounded his 
person. 

" Strange that with such clear ideas there should be 
such an appalling morality. . . . One dares not look into 
the abyss of corruption in which these people grovel." 

The Future Life. 

" October 15, 1885. 
"To divert our minds from political matters and to 
turn the interminable visits of my unemployed friends 
the chiefs to useful account, I proposed to them that we 
should make a net. This is the privileged work of the 
chiefs, and in no way beneath the dignity of a king. . . . 
While making my net with the chiefs we had a most 
interesting conversation about Nyambe. . . . The dead 
go to Nyambe, taking the name of ifu, i.e., the manes or 
ancestral spirits. They are judged beforehand by Nyambe. 
The moment any one [i.e., any arrival in the spirit-world] 
is announced to him, Nyambe gives his orders. If the 
person is worthy, the servants of Nyambe point out to 
him a little path, very narrow, which leads to himself. 
Here the new arrival will possess vast herds and whole 
tribes of slaves — their ideal of happiness. If, on the 
contrary, it is one unworthy of Nyambe's favours, a broad 
and much-beaten road is pointed out to him, which 
gradually effaces itself more and more, and ends in a 
frightful desert, where the poor wretch wanders till he 
dies of hunger and thirst." 



Ph. T. Burnier.} 

A ZAMBESIAN OFFERING HOMAGE TO NYAMBE WITH A BOWL OF WATER. 




ZAMBESI CHIEFS MAKING A NET OF BARK FIBRES. 

[To face p. 348. 



1886] REINCARNATION 349 



Transmigration of Souls. 

" Sunday, July 31, 1887. 

" (Canoe journey.) I read and commented on several 
passages bearing on the Eesurrection. They listened to 
me; but . . . I should like to know the cause of the inces- 
sant laughter, against which our most serious efforts break 
in vain. ... I asked a certain Narubutu, who had drunk 
the lebila (magic potion) of a lion, what he will do when, 
transformed into a lion, he is killed by those living. ' I 
shall become another lion, and when that one is killed, 
again a lion, and so on for ever ; the sebuku of man never 
dies, never, never ! ' 

"There is immortality clearly established. But what a 
dismal eternity, to fall from the dignity of man and become 
an animal ! lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo, serpent, bird, 
ape, but never again a man, even one inferior to his first 
estate. ' No,' said Narubutu, in a serious tone, as if my 
question had surprised him, * there is no lebila that can 
make another living man out of a dead one.' He opened 
his eyes very wide when I told him that God wishes the 
dead to become beings superior even to His augels ; perfect 
creatures. What beauties in the Gospel ! 

"According to Narubutu, who talks intelligently, when 
any one dies, his soul goes towards the gods, his body 
dissolves, and from the worms that consume it is born 
the lion, serpent, leopard, according to the medicine the 
deceased has swallowed [a decoction, M. Coillard says 
elsewhere, made of the worms from the dead body of 
whatever animal he has chosen to be in a future life], 
and even any animal ; as many animals as there are 
different medicines. The soul incarnates itself in these 
animals only occasionally, and only in order to visit its 
living relatives, and get from them food, clothing, darts, 
according to the interpretation of his wishes given by the 
divining bones. 



350 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Marriage. 

"A girl is usually asked in marriage from her childhood. 
When she is older her husband takes her to his house. 
. . . The most curious thing is the first interview of 
husband and wife. There is often such a difference of 
age between them that the young girl, a mere child, is 
naturally timid. They are shut up together in a hut, 
seated on the same mat, and between them is a bowl full 
of water, the edges of which are garnished with white 
beads ; above, or rather beside it, is an axe. The bowl of 
water is a mirror, in which they can see each other with- 
out looking in each other's faces. But how is the ice to 
be broken? . . . 'Give me a pinch of snuff,' says the 
husband. The girl bridles and turns away. ' Come, give 
me a pinch ; where is your snuff-box ? ' The girl shyly 
produces her snuff-box, taps it, and presents the tobacco 
to her husband in the palm of her hand. That is the 
regular beginning of things." 

This, it must be said, is the only gleam of romance in 
the tragedy of a Zambesian woman's life. Marriage was 
not regarded as a permanent institution; children were 
not desired. Infanticide was universally practised. 
Those who survived were considered as belonging not to 
their parents, but to the State as personified in the king, 
who could, and (till lately) did, take them away whenever 
he liked, to be his slaves or those of others. Consequently 
few cared to have the trouble and sorrow of bringing 
them up. ' There are no unhappy couples here,' wrote 
M. Coillard; ' they part.' ... 4 Is this really the ideal 
which theorists of both sexes who consider themselves 
the great lights of the nineteenth century and the cham- 
pions of humanity dare to propose to our old ultra-civilised 
Europe ? "What progress ! ' " 



CHAPTEE XX 



THE BAEOTSILAND MISSION 

1887-1891 

First experiences — Witchcraft — Boycotting — Brigandage — Commerce 
— The ordeal — Eaiding the Mashikulumbwe — First reforms — The 
Slave-trade forbidden — Narubutu — Discomfiture of witch-doctors 
— Introduction of wheat and bananas — Protection of cattle — 
Conversion of the heir-apparent — Death of Mme. Coillard. 

THE expedition had now ended ; the Mission had 
been begun, with two stations, the Jeanmairets' at 
Sesheke (Lower River), the Coillards' at Sefula, three 
hundred miles further north. It is impossible, and 
would be needless to relate in detail, the story of the 
next seventeen years of labour, as it has been so fully 
told in M. Coillard's own book, On the Threshold of 
Central Africa (Hodder & Stoughton). For the first six 
years it was an hourly struggle even to keep a footing in 
the country at all. Their lives were in hourly danger. 
The chiefs at Sesheke once plotted to seize M. Jean- 
mairet and M. L. Jalla, who had joined him there, to tie 
them up and throw them to the crocodiles, and then run 
away with their wives and children. Why did they not 
do it? They themselves could not tell. 

Traders and travellers had been there — intrepid men, 
all of them — but it must never be forgotten that mis- 

S51 



352 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



sionaries are exposed to a peril which traders and 
travellers do not know. The purpose for which they 
are there — namely, to win the people to a new faith and 
a better life — rouses up all the opposition of which 
human nature is capable. Settlers, who need not inter- 
fere with their ways, do not excite this resentment. 
Then, too, there is what M. Coillard often referred to — 
the hostility of the ghostly Enemy: the " prince of 
this world," so intense, so unremitting, so consciously 
felt, that he said nothing was lacking but the visible 
sight of him. " How can people doubt the personality 
of Satan?" he wrote more than once. There is one 
effectual way to be convinced of an enemy's existence, 
however invisible, namely, to invade the territories he 
holds. The conviction that upheld them throughout was 
that they had come to wrest these territories from the 
usurper in Christ's name. "He must reign." 

" What gives us our strength is the bulk of the army 
of Christ which is behind, and upholds us. . . . For 
them, as for ourselves, the evangelisation of the heathen 
world in the place where it is carried on, is certainly not 
a tissue of strange customs and adventures as thrilling 
as a romance ; it is a desperate struggle with the Prince 
of Darkness, and with everything his rage can stir up in 
the shape of obstacles, vexations, opposition, and hatred, 
whether by circumstances or by the hand of man. It 
is a serious task. Oh, it should mean a life of consecra- 
tion and faith ! " 

His private journals reveal difficulties far greater than 
anything he has published could convey. These did not 
arise altogether from the king's character or treatment. 
The blood-thirstiness attributed to him by such travellers 
as Dr. Holub and Major Serpa Pinto was in reality 
foreign to his nature : his deeds of slaughter were 



THE NALIKUANDA. 

Musician in the foreground playing wooden harmonica. 




THE NALIKUANDA. 

(Another year.) 



[To face p. 352. 



1887] MONOPOLY OF MAGIC 353 



natural in a savage ruler. Undoubtedly there was a 
moment in his life when he lost self-control in the pur- 
suit of vengeance, and this led to the revolution that 
drove him into exile. But many Most Christian Kings 
have done the like, of whom it could not always be said, 
as it truly can of him, that they repented and forsook 
their errors, and honoured their rebukers. From the 
moment Lewanika realised, through his missionary's 
plain speaking, that his barbarities were both unjust and 
impolitic, he laid them aside. 

No ; the greatest of these difficulties arose from the 
tyranny of the borena (governing classes), and its natural 
result, viz., the degradation of the people, and their 
servile condition, giving rise to a depravity unparalleled 
elsewhere. Thought and independent action being stifled, 
they were mere automatons in work, mere animals in life. 
What troubled M. Coillard then, and to the end, was the 
impossibility of reaching the lowest slaves with the 
Gospel. They could not believe anything offered to their 
masters could be for them too. Moreover, this aristoc- 
racy wanted to keep for itself the monopoly of everything 
good. However much he might repudiate such an idea, 
they would not believe that the missionary possessed no 
magic. When he first arrived, if storms or raids befel 
the chiefs at Sesheke, they could not forgive him for not 
warning them. " Surely you read all that beforehand in 
your Book. We know it tells no lies ! " If he assured 
them he was as ignorant as they were of the future, they 
would say, " Ah, we understand; you are keeping all that 
wisdom for our master, the king " ; or they would offer 
him smuggled ivory by night if he would only gratify 
them with some inside information. So rooted is this 
idea in the native mind that even a Christian chief in 
Bechuanaland, in conversation with M. Coillard, had 
interpreted "The secret of the Lord is with them that 

24 



354 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



fear Him, and He will show them His covenant," in the 
same way. The result of this spirit of monopoly was 
that for many years the Zambesi missionaries were 
hardly missionaries to the people, however much they 
wished and tried to be. It was only the chiefs and their 
children who were at all accessible, and the position of 
M. Coillard and his colleagues somewhat resembled that 
of those Indian missionaries at the courts of native 
princes a hundred years ago, through whose great per- 
sonal influence the latter became wise and benevolent 
rulers, without Christianity spreading among their people 
to any appreciable extent. 

Another great difficulty of Barotsiland was, and always 
has been, evangelisation in the villages. " In Basutoland 
you spring to the saddle and gallop where you will. Here 
you can neither reach them in canoes, because there is 
not enough water, nor on foot because of the peat-bogs, 
unless you divest yourself of all your clothes, which is 
not always practicable." M. Coillard' s method was to 
ride along the edge of the plain where the ground begins 
to rise ; but even then he had many misadventures 
through his horse getting stuck in the swamps; and 
when that faithful servant died, as most horses do die at 
the Zambesi, he had either to trudge on foot or wait for 
the flood. 

To win the confidence of the king and chiefs it would 
have seemed desirable, above all things, to avoid the 
least friction. This was impossible when all the resources 
of supply and transport were owned by them, and the 
new-comers, with their small means, had to be in daily con- 
flict with them to procure the very means of existence — 
food, water, building material, labourers, canoes or oxen for 
transport. The borena not only refused to supply these 
things except at their own exorbitant prices, but they 
expected the missionaries to buy from them (again at 



1887] SUPPLY AND EXCHANGE 355 



their own prices) everything they themselves had no 
further use for. If the bargain was refused, nothing 
could be obtained. Perhaps even they would be boy- 
cotted for weeks together, till they were at the point of 
starvation ; this happened several times. 

The African, even the Morotsi, is not without a sense 
of equity. The chieftain's traditional headdress is an 
ostrich feather. This, with its straight, aspiring shaft, 
its perfectly balanced plumelets, and its supposed unsul- 
lied purity, is the native symbol of Justice. The difficulty 
lies in its application, especially to the commerce of every- 
day, because society, being founded on monopoly, not 
on competition, the whole basis of property and its trans- 
fer is quite different from ours. The native has no idea 
of fixed values. Everything depends on the relationship 
of the buyer and seller. He either demands a thing as 
a right from an inferior or as a favour from a superior ; 
or he may ask a present from an equal, bestowing in re- 
turn something he can do without. As regards white men, 
the official may demand ; the trader is entitled to exchange ; 
but the missionary clearly ought to give him every- 
thing he wants, for is he not his father and the father of 
the nation? However, this daily business intercourse 
forms a part, and not the least important part, of a mis- 
sionary's work in a savage land. It brings him into 
simple and true relations with the people, in which he 
can be a minister of righteousness as well as a preacher 
of Glad Tidings. The preaching is doubtless the chief 
thing, but no one need hear it, still less obey: the object- 
lessons of a holy life and of a Christian family are price- 
less, but no one can be forced to follow any example, 
however good. The advantage of buying and selling and 
of employing labour, e.g., in house-building and garden- 
ing, is that if one party to the bargain is inflexibly just, 
and at the same time refuses to be imposed upon, the 



356 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



other is forced to acquire the habit of honesty, and 
learns by degrees the lesson that "A false weight is 
abomination to the Lord.'" 

So in his very first transaction, getting a hut built at 
Leshonia, M. Coillard told all the workmen what cloth 
he should pay each man, and showed it, afterwards ful- 
filling his promise exactly. All complained, but Mme. 
Coillard brought out some beads to smooth things over, 
and said she would give a few to all who had not mur- 
mured. Of course none of them had ! " Who could when 
they received such gifts from their father and mother ? 
Their hearts were white" Alas ! in the language of the 
Zambesi, their hearts were much more often yellow (i.e., 
covetous). It is the besetting sin of the Barotsi — the 
vice which, unfortunately, civilisation, apart from Chris- 
tianity, only aggravates. 

No one could realise more clearly than both M. and 
Mme. Coillard how necessary it is to improve the out- 
ward condition of the natives. The discipline it involves 
both trains their hands and develops their minds, if only 
it can be carried out, not by appealing to motives of self- 
interest and cupidity, but on the apostolic principle : — 

" Let hirn that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, 
working with his hands the thing that is good that he may have 
to give to him that needeth." — Eph. iv. 28. 

Still, people who have renounced everything for the 
service of the Gospel and found their own spiritual life 
not hindered but helped thereby, can hardly be expected 
to teach their disciples to multiply material needs for 
their own sake. Industry, skill, decent housing and 
clothing are on another footing. To begin with, then, 
they hoped that the sight of their own modest dwelling 
would give the Barotsi the idea of something better than 
the kennels they inhabited. So indeed it did, and one of 



O to 



1887] CHIEFS AT SCHOOL 357 



those who had helped them to build it put up a neat 
little house of his own in the same style. But orders 
came from the king that he must pull it down again and 
not presume to be better housed than others of his own 
station. So when the smallpox broke out in its most 
virulent form, and M. Coillard, having got vaccine from a 
cow, wanted to inoculate the people, the royal family 
must first be treated, and nobody else must take it from 
the cow, that was the prerogative of royalty. Each 
degree of the social scale must wait to be vaccinated from 
the one above it. Unfortunately the epidemic took no 
account of precedence, and many deaths and much 
blindness were the result of delay. 

Everything broke upon that rock of privilege. It 
was the same with the school which they opened on 
March 4, 1887, seven weeks after their arrival. Only the 
children of the royal family and principal chiefs came. 
The little slaves who accompanied them were simply to 
wait upon them. The Princess Mpololoa, aged twelve, 
required three such attendants, one to lean against as a 
cushion, one to hand her slate, pencil, or book, the third 
to present her back as a writing-desk ! The young 
princes were simply brigands. No fees were paid for 
their board, the king merely remarking that the people 
living round the station were bound to maintain his sons 
and daughters, whose attendants accordingly requisitioned, 
in other words stole, everything needed for their charges. 
Naturally the neighbourhood was quickly deserted, and 
as there was no other produce left, it was their host's 
flock, store-house, and garden that were raided to feed 
the royal pupils and their suites. Besides reading and 
writing, singing, Scripture, and general ideas by means 
of pictures and stories, they were all taught sewing, and 
the boys the use of tools by Waddell ; but, with few 
exceptions, they never stayed long enough to learn much 



358 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

during the first few years. It was a dreadful crime to 
try and teach them household tasks : those were for 
slaves. Once the king's son, Litia, hearing sand was 
wanted for the schoolhouse floors, led his schoolfellows 
out to collect it and then to scatter it. Directly they 
heard of this the parents sent canoes by their servants to 
fetch all the children away by night, without the for- 
mality of notice to the missionaries. None had the least 
idea of decency or discipline ; and their little persons 
were so sacred that it was death to touch them. A 
servant carrying a bundle of reeds accidentally brushed 
the eye of a small child running round the house. She 
was Lewanika's daughter, and the author of such 
sacrilege was dead in half an hour. 

Soon after the school was opened came the annual 
flood, which lasts four months. The people of the plain 
then forsake their villages and go to the low hills, fringing 
the Barotsi Valley, which apparently was once a lake. At 
its height, all the antelopes and other wild beasts betake 
themselves for refuge to the islands which stand above 
the waters ; and every year the king organised a grand 
battue, to hunt them. The islets were surrounded by 
canoes, and the wretched animals, unable to escape, were 
massacred in thousands after the king had thrown the 
first spear. The people looked to this season to provide 
themselves with skins for the coming winter and plenty 
of meat. This year (1887) the flood was slight, the 
antelopes escaped over the plain, the people returned to 
their homes hungry and disappointed. Of course it was 
witchcraft. All the chiefs, from the Prime Minister 
downwards, submitted to the ordeal of boiling water, or 
rather their wives and slaves did so for them as proxies. 
Strange to say, no one was scalded. There was no one 
else to accuse but the new-comers, and many of the 
people would have been delighted to see them burnt as 



1887] WITCH-BURNING 359 



sorcerers. Directly M. Coillard heard of this he went 
straight to the capital, and the next day, being Sunday, 
May 22nd, he preached to the whole lekhothla from the 
text, "Thou shalt not kill." 

Journal F.C. : — 

" However much I shrank from the task, I had to 
denounce the atrocity of a superstition which so lightly 
sacrificed so many human lives. I felt the full impor- 
tance of the occasion, and the grandeur of the ministry 
committed to me. Oh, how tremblingly I had gone to 
Lealui ! How I besought my Master for fidelity, for 
strength, and the power of a burning love ! The people, 
astonished, said, 'Ah yes, indeed.' The king hung his 
head and said to the Prime Minister, ' The words of the 
Moruti have sunk into my heart.' The councillors came 
to me in private to beg me to repeat them to him, 
and he himself asked me to say them all again to his 
ministers. They made me all sorts of fine promises — no 
more ordeals, no more poison, no more burning at the 
stake. But let us not deceive ourselves : it is not at the 
first blast that one can overthrow or even shake the walls 
of superstition." 

Nevertheless, unlikely as it then appeared, the walls 
were shaken. One man was murdered with shocking 
barbarity a few weeks later, but this was the last occasion 
on which any person was put to death at the capital for 
sorcery, although Mme. Coillard, writing at that very 
date, could say (May 27, 1887) : " Oh, the quantities of 
people that have been burnt as witches and wizards since 
we came here ! It is almost a daily occurrence." 

The Barotsi were not bloodthirsty in the strict sense of 
the word. They had a horror of shedding or seeing blood, 
and even of red garments or beads which reminded them 



360 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



of it, and which therefore they regarded as unlucky. 
Poisoning, strangling, and burning were their weapons. 
Sorcery (working ill to their neighbours) was the only 
crime in the calendar : a most elastic term, which simply 
reduced itself in practice to unpopularity. A man who 
had no friends, as already said, could be hurried off to the 
stake on a simple accusation. He had one chance for his 
life. If he could run and clasp the knees of the Nata- 
moyo, or Minister of Mercy, the moment the accusation 
was launched in the lekhothla, he could at least demand 
trial by ordeal before being lynched. 

Mme. Coillaed to Mks. Hakt : — 

" The day we arrived we saw a case judged. A heads- 
man came to complain that when he had gone home to 
his village and distributed skins to be tanned and brayed 
for the king, one of the men had refused to accept his 
share of the work, and had struggled with the king's 
messenger and bitten his hand. The king said he must 
be beaten, and before any one could rise to execute 
Lewanika's order, the culprit, as fleet as a hare, fled to 
lay hold on the poles of the courtyard of Katoka. If he 
had succeeded, no one could have touched him there, 
for the king's sisters are Saviours, and their houses places 
of refuge. But he did not, for several men, seeing his 
intention, interrupted him, and then, like a stag at bay, he 
ran and threw himself at the feet of one of the king's 
ministers who is also a Deliverer [the Natamoyo] . I 
assure you it was a moving sight, and one which brought 
such well-known scriptures forcibly to our minds." 

From the first the missionaries claimed and obtained 
the right of sanctuary for their stations. " I also am a 
Natamoyo," said M. Coillard, when a hunted man flung 
himself at his feet. His crime was that when the king 




THE CHIEF NAItUBUTU. 



[To face p. 360. 



1889] THE MA-MBUNDAS 361 



had proposed to apply for the Queen's protectorate, he 
supported the proposal, which stung the pride of his 
brother chiefs. (This forms the subject of a later chapter.) 
He was careful, however, to show that he did not wish to 
defeat the ends of justice, but only to save the lives of 
accused persons till they could be properly tried. Crimi- 
nals had till then been tortured, bound to a rack and laid 
in the burning sun, or on an ant-heap, smeared with honey, 
to be devoured alive. These and other tortures were 
abolished through his representations, but it was easier 
to get such things banished from the lekhothla than 
to teach the chiefs how a trial should be conducted by 
means of witnesses confronting the accused. This was a 
very tame substitute for the exciting process of " smelling- 
out " as conducted by the witch-doctors, and long after 
the ordeal had been put out of court the latter held their 
position unassailed, only that " sorcerers," instead of 
being burnt, were to be banished to a village of their own. 
As M. Coillard remarked, the subjects of these accusations 
were generally cantankerous persons, ill to live with ; and 
this idea, which Lewanika had the honour of originating, 
seems capable of extension. 

Another village was destined for thieves, and a third 
for those who troubled the peace of families, such as 
it was. The king was in earnest, but he moved too 
fast for his chiefs, who contested every reform to the 
utmost. 

Narubutu, the old blind councillor, was the great pre- 
server of traditions till his death two years ago, since 
which time he has been venerated as a god (Molimo). He 
was the head of the reactionary party, and it was due to him 
that the Ma-Mbundas kept their public influence so long. 
At last the heathen party openly measured strength with 
the progressives. Lewanika sent a hasty message to tell 
his missionary that the Prime Minister had actually led a 



362 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



deputation to him that morning to announce that the 
divining bones had denounced him, their king. " So, if I 
am cruel, do not be surprised." 

Journal F. C. : — 

" In the large, rectangular shed of the lekhothla ... six 
or seven old Ma-Mbundas, squatting on some skins, were 
convulsively shaking baskets filled with every conceivable 
object, bits of human skeletons, bones of strange animals, 
spines and scales of fish, rare shells, curious seeds, the 
hairs of wild beasts, &c. These wizards were absorbed 
in the study of each combination, muttering cabalistic 
formulas, whilst their acolytes, ranged in a circle round 
them, made a frightful clatter with their rattles, bells, 
and tom-toms. The people, packed like herrings, looked 
on with craning necks, staring eyes, and mouths agape. 
And all this . . . under the very eyes of the king, whom 
they thus accuse of the nation's misfortunes. Shortly 
afterwards, the king's messenger had assembled the 
crowd, given his message, and finished by crying, 1 Seize 
them.' Every one threw themselves on the wretched 
Ma-Mbundas, and fought for the pleasure of throttling 
them, when a second messenger arrived, who ordered the 
release of the miserable men, and warned them to have 
more respect for the Throne in future. The Ma-Mbundas 
had already profited by the moment's confusion to escape." 

This was in December, 1892. The witch-doctors, thus 
publicly discredited, never regained their former footing 
in the lekhothla. Their trade is now forbidden by the 
British Administration [Decree of 1904], but of course 
they still practise in private, especially in sickness. 
This is the stronghold of heathenism, and though the 
Paris Mission possesses two medical men, so far it 



1889] A CASE OF MURDER 363 



remains impregnable. Perhaps this will be the next 
stage of victory. 

To obtain the conviction of real criminals was an end 
only less important than the security of the innocent. 
No man's life was safe ; any chief who had a grudge 
against him could have him assassinated, and even if he 
were denounced, he got off scot free, perhaps by paying 
an ox into court, perhaps without. The same year that 
witnessed the last " smelling-out " in the lekhothla also 
saw justice executed on a murderer in high places. 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

" October 25, 1892. 

" A young man and his mother had been accused of 
sorcery and brought to the lekhothla. After long dis- 
cussions, the king declared he would have no more of 
these cases of sorcery. . . . The young man had 
succeeded his father as village chief : his uncle, who 
thought he himself should have succeeded to the dignity, 
had made the accusation. The charge being dismissed, 
the uncle waylaid the nephew by a pond, throttled him, 
and with the help of a brother, drowned him. 

" As soon as the thing was known, the guilty parties 
were brought in. Lewanika was in a terrible state of 
excitement. He ordered the chiefs to judge the case, and 
asked my advice. The chiefs were divided in counsel. 
Some said they ought to confiscate all the murderer's 
possessions, but to leave him his life ; others that he 
should be drowned in the same way as he had drowned 
his nephew. To the first he replied, ' Yes, that is all right 
for the present case, but when you have to do with some- 
one who has nothing whatever, what will you do ? ' 

" To my mind, the case was aggravated by the fact that 
the king had already given his judgment, and that these 
murderers had taken no notice of it. It is an excessively 



364 COIL LARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



serious thing that the king should not have the power to 
save an innocent man. ... I thought of our Christians, 
who would certainly be accused in the same way, i.e., of 
sorcery. And while pressing the king to make an 
example, I also suggested to deprive him of everything 
and spare his life. 

" The whole day the wretched man and his accomplice 
were writhing in the fierce sunshine of the public place, 
cruelly throttled. In the evening, one was untied, the 
other was taken to the fatal pool, where he was executed. 
On the way he saw me and called to me : ' They are going 
to kill me, Moruti ; oh, save me ! ' His curses and 
entreaties still ring in my ears. But what could I do ? " 

Though M. Coillard believed firmly that the governor 
" beareth not the sword in vain," it was very hard indeed 
for him to refrain from interference. But this one 
execution saved many lives. Indeed, since then hardly 
any case of deliberate murder has been known to occur 
within Lewanika's jurisdiction, except of children, which, 
alas ! although stringently forbidden for years past, still 
goes on to some extent, and is difficult to detect. The 
real cause of it lay in slavery, which existed in a peculiarly 
odious form. Every year the finest boys and girls were 
taken from every village and brought to the capital, 
nominally to learn their duties, in reality to be distributed 
as slaves at the king's pleasure. Few ever saw their 
homes again. Consequently, parents had no interest in 
preserving their children's lives. When asked questions 
about them they invariably replied they had none ; " wiping 
out their traces," they called it. "Why do you all pre- 
tend you have no children? " M. Coillard asked confidenti- 
ally one day. " Because the king's men would take them 
away if we did not hide them." A check was put upon 
this blood-tax as soon as the British Administration 



1889] CHILD-MURDER 365 



entered the country, and with the abolition of slavery in 
1906 the sense of parental responsibility will probably 
develop. But though slavery was the chief cause, it was 
not the only one. Superstition had much to answer for. 
Of twins, one was always killed, if not both ; any child 
who cut its upper teeth first, and any baby born before 
its predecessor could walk ; and the murder of some little 
creature otherwise precious was the only accepted 
means of averting many forms of supposed ill-luck. 
One such child, whose parents had hidden him in the forest 
to save his life, was seized by the neighbours and thrown 
to the crocodiles as soon as he grew big enough to run 
about and could be concealed no longer. Apparently 
the idea was that as soon as his first teeth fell out 
every one connected with him would die, fire would 
fall on the huts, and blight on the fields. Nothing 
can alter this but the spread of the Gospel. 

The social ills which afflicted Barotsiland may be 
roughly divided into those that could be put down by the 
king's fiat and those which could not. The latter were the 
customs and superstitions which only the transformation 
of hearts and minds can drive out — a barbed-wire en- 
tanglement in which " those that have clean escaped from 
them that dwell in error" are too often "entangled and 
overcome," and senseless laws of taboo and ceremonial 
defilement, for the least breach of which, at that time, 
people were liable to death, lest they should bring ill-luck 
on others. These made them heartless and cruel : for, e.g., 
they dared not touch a dead or (in many cases) a sick 
person for fear of being defiled, and hence forbidden to 
leave their courts even to pasture their cattle or till their 
fields until the next new moon, or even longer. It might 
be supposed that the idea of infection had something to 
do with this, but that was the last thing thought of. 
Lepers and smallpox patients bathed freely in the village 
fountains. 



366 COIL LARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Among the former may be mentioned first those already 
spoken of, namely, burning of sorcerers, smelling-out, and 
torturing criminals and accused persons, and trial by 
ordeal; and the shielding from justice of privileged 
persons; and secondly, slave-trading, slave-raiding, and 
cattle-lifting, and beer-drinking, the fruitful cause of all 
the crimes of violence in the country. Very soon after 
his restoration to power, Lewanika forbade the manu- 
facture, sale, and drinking of strong beer, under stringent 
penalties. This was entirely his own idea, adopted from 
his friend Khama. The French missionaries, however 
much they denounced drunkenness, had not t)ie pro- 
hibitionist views common among their English and 
American colleagues, andM. Coillard, for one, thought the 
king was going too far, and would only bring his own 
orders into disrepute from the impossibility of enforcing 
them except at the capital. However, he contrived to do 
so with such success that a drunken man or woman was 
never seen out of doors till 1902, when he went to visit 
England, and during his absence his people got rather 
out of hand. He himself set the example, and his family 
and leading chiefs followed it. Even those whom he 
sent on distant embassies, northwards to the borders of 
the Congo State, and south to Basutoland, refused to 
touch it, although in the diplomatic intercourse of chiefs 
beer-drinking is as much a part of ceremonial as is the 
loving-cup at a Lord Mayor's banquet. They knew if 
they transgressed they would lose their appointments. A 
proof of this determination was given when, in the autumn 
of 1899, the Prime Minister, another official, and four chiefs, 
were found guilty of carrying on a drinking club at the resi- 
dence of the first-named. They and all their pots of beer 
were brought into the lekhothla, and before the eyes of the 
assembled lords and commons they were made to pour 
the beer away on the thirsty sand, and were then stripped 



1889] TOTAL ABSTINENCE 



367 



of everything they possessed, viz., their wives, children, 
slaves, villages and fields (i.e., their manors), dwellings, 
and personal property, including clothes and ornaments, 
their official decorations and titles, and even their man- 
hood names, reverting to those of their childhood. They 
were sent back to their birth-places bearing only their 
child-names, and were exiled from the capital, the Prime 
Minister for life because he had abused his office. 
Obviously the zeal of a reformer is not always " accord- 
ing to knowledge," and the manner of this punishment 
could hardly commend itself to the most fanatical. But 
it led to a good thing, namely, to the appointment of the 
present Prime Minister, specially chosen by Lewanika 
because, being a Christian, brought up by the missionaries, 
he would be in favour of progress, "the bull that leads 
the herd across the stream." 

By January, 1888, a year after the missionaries' 
arrival at the capital, the days of anarchy were practically 
ended. The massacres of rebels had so far justified 
themselves that the few who remained dared not oppose 
Lewanika's authority. In the civil war all the governing 
blood in both camps had been spilt. Almost all who 
had traditions and experience of administration and 
leadership, all whose loyalty had led them to take sides 
boldly for one or other party, had been exterminated 
with their descendants. Those who survived were for 
the most part time-servers, and the young ; men without 
any sense of responsibility, for whom power signified 
only the means of self -gratification. Now the people 
began to feel the effects of all those wild years. Not 
only was there a dearth of corn, but the cattle had been 
almost entirely killed off during the days when it was not 
worth while taking care of them. " Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die." Famine threatened every- 
body. The shortest way out of the difficulty was to raid 



368 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



their neighbours, the Mashi-kulumbwe. These were to 
the Barotsi what the Mashonas were to the Matabele 
— a vassal tribe of skulkers and cowards whom they 
could plunder at their pleasure. The pretext was that 
they had ill-used and robbed Dr. Holub's party. 

The expedition was organised and returned at the end 
of five months. It had been completely successful. 
Immense numbers of cattle, troops of women and 
children were brought into the capital as booty, and 
distributed. Lewanika offered M. Coillard and M. 
Jeanmairet each a small herd, which was of course 
refused. "I understand," he replied, "but what do 
the Barotsi possess except by plunder?" 

Meanwhile the missionaries had been robbed of all 
their own cattle one by one. Nothing was left. They 
had to live for some time on manioc and fish ; no milk, 
no meat, no vegetables or fruit. Their European stores 
were depleted, except a few necessaries for sickness. As 
for game, even in Central Africa it can seldom be shot 
from one's own doorstep, and everywhere else it was 
poaching, unless they were on good terms with the 
chiefs, which could not always be the case. Everything 
that grew in their gardens was stolen. 

That the people might have the less excuse for raiding 
their neighbours, M. Coillard counselled Lewanika to 
encourage cattle rearing, and not to kill the herds but 
to keep them, as the Basutos and Zulus do, as banks, 
while living on agricultural produce and milk. So 
thoroughly was this advice acted upon, that ten years 
later, when the rinderpest swept away the staple wealth 
of South Africa, and the Barotsi Valley escaped its 
ravages, traders came there from north, south, east, 
and west to buy oxen from Lewanika — cows he would 
never part with. Thus, even before the British occupa- 
tion in 1897, war for the mere sake of plunder had 



1889] THE MAMBARIS 369 

become a thing of the past, though the will for it 
certainly [ had not. When the Besident was announced 
to be on his way, the chiefs made a desperate effort 
to organise one more foray, before it should be for 
ever impossible. The troops were armed and ready to 
start for Mashikulumbweland on the morrow (Monday, 
September 27, 1897), when M. Adolphe Jalla, then the 
missionary of the station, preached so earnestly against 
it that the project was given up, and the fighting line 
melted away without another word. 

This is again anticipating. To return to 1889; the 
king was readily convinced that in the industry of a 
growing population his country had a greater source of 
wealth than even in cattle. He had never been one 
of those rulers who systematically sell their people to 
the slave-dealers, but these Mambaris had often bought 
" black ivory " from the subordinate chiefs, who were 
charged to sell real ivory on his account, and of course 
he profited by this. Now he refused to do so ; and when 
a case of this came to his ears he punished the trader 
severely, confiscated a quantity of the ivory he had just 
bought, aDd sent the slaves he had purchased back to 
their homes, though he lost money by this. The 
Mambari tore his clothes in rage and disappointment. 
From that time forth any merchant buying slaves was 
forbidden ever to trade at the capital again, and this 
traffic soon ceased in the Barotsi Valley, though it con- 
tinued in the outlying regions which refused or ignored 
his jurisdiction. 

M. Coillard also taught the king to grow wheat. 
After attempts repeated three years in succession, it 
succeeded very well, and the whole country will probably 
become a granary. He also showed them that bananas, 
hitherto regarded as "medicine," were good to eat. He 
hoped that both would become the food of the people. 

25 



370 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



But no, they were at once made royal monopolies, like 
honey and some other choice products. The idea that 
everything exists for the king is so ingrained that 
twenty years of Christian teaching have not broken it 
down. No longer ago than November, 1900, some chiefs 
came to the Lower Biver with sacks of wheat to sell on 
Lewanika's behalf to the traders. The Prince Litia, the 
Governor of Sesheke, told M. Louis Jalla these men had 
brought word that the people were starving at the 
capital. " Then why does not Lewanika sell his corn 
to his own people? Litia stared, and then said, "But 
the king's children are all fed." 

When M. Goy, a trained agriculturist, arrived he 
showed them how to make canals for transport and 
irrigation, and to drain the marshy land. Since then, 
both Lewanika and his sister the Queen have had 
several dug; but the planting of eucalyptus, also intro- 
duced about the same time to prevent malaria, has so 
far been beyond them. Nor have they learnt to plough 
with oxen, though M. Coillard sent for a plough and 
tried to teach them. 

The name of M. Goy, whose too short career was 
closed by death in April, 1896, leads to the mention of 
his arrival with the first reinforcement which reached 
the Zambesi in August, 1887. It consisted of himself, 
Dr. Dardier, and the Bev. and Mme. Louis Jalla. Of 
these only M. Louis Jalla survives. One of a biographer's 
troubles must always be that it is impossible to speak as 
fully as could be wished of those who shared their leader's 
perils and whose loyal help made his work fruitful.. 
Later pioneers of the Barotsi Mission were M. and Mme. 
Adolphe Jalla, Miss Kiener, and M. and Mme Beguin ; 
besides M. and Mme. Jeanmairet already mentioned. 
Their successors might well say (as one of them did 
in 1899) :— 



1889] REINFORCEMENTS 371 



ie Que n'ont pas souffert les heros 
Dont nons suivons la trace ! 
Que de dangers, que de travaux 
Et quelle sainte audace!" 

The share in all this taken by the Basuto catechists 
must never be forgotten. From the first they exercised 
a very great iufluence over both chief s and people; recom- 
mended the Gospel to them by telling what it had done 
for themselves and their country, and above all, set the 
inestimable example of Christian native families. 

These new workers had to occupy other places, where 
they remained in unspeakable isolation. When, as 
happened in December, 1888, two of the Basuto cate- 
chists had to return to their own country, the Coillards 
and Mr. Waddell were alone for nearly a year. In all 
that time they only saw one white man, Mr. Selous, 
and had but one post ; and they had not a single friend 
or well-wisher among the natives except the king, whom 
as yet it was impossible to count upon. At any moment 
they were liable to be accused of sorcery, and executed 
accordingly ; and the king might not have been able to 
save them. There were as yet no white traders resident 
at Lealui, and of those who came once a year, all were 
not of the same stamp as Westbeech. 

Though they rejoiced in the gradual improvement of 
social conditions around them, this was far from being all 
that the missionaries and their supporters looked for. On 
this subject M. Boegner, the Director of the Paris Mis- 
sionary Society, once said that the salvation of the 
individual soul must always be the first object of the 
missionary, because the true conversion of a few in- 
dividuals always brings about an improvement in the 
outward condition of the mass ; it is one of the cases 
in which the less includes the greater. The object, he 
added, of the social side of mission work should be 



372 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



to place every human being in a position to exercise its 
claim to the Divine salvation. The following comment 
on this remark appeared in the magazine of the Mission 
(April, 1901) :— 

"How deeply true this is must be felt by every one who knows 
something of African life. How can a wife exercise her claim to the 
Divine redemption when she is the absolute property of her busband, 
and as such must comply with the revolting customs of heathenism ? 
How can a slave exercise his claim to become ' a new man in Christ 
Jesus ' when at his master's bidding he must steal for him and he for 
him ? How can even a minister of state exercise his claim to the 
Christian life when he may on occasion be called upon to boycott or 
even to assassinate the objects of his superior's dislike ? How can 
any man, even a chief, exercise this claim when, if he omits to 
comply with trivial and degrading superstitions, he is accused of 
bringing the direst calamities upon his neighbours, and punished 
accordingly? Finally, how can every soul exercise this claim in 
a community where only the aristocracy are allowed to attend school 
and public worship ? 

" Without wishing to Europeanise the natives, it is perfectly 
evident that if they are to be converted they must be humanised ; 
they must acquire a status of some sort, or else they cannot even 
hear the Gospel. We can only hope and pray that as the ruling tribe 
receives Christianity its members may gradually learn to ' give to 
their bond- servants that which is just and equal ' — namely, security 
before the law, and the right to call their souls their own." 

M. Coillard, however, was not one of the people to 
whom it is any pleasure to take part in public affairs. 
To him, spiritual ministry was everything. Many 
devoted missionaries have esteemed it both their duty 
and their privilege to take part in public affairs, and 
would probably have done it just the same if there had 
been no such great abuses to set right. At first by 
temperament and since by conviction he himself had 
come to take a different view of the Church's position in 
the world. " Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence 
also we look for the Saviour " — this summed up his 
attitude. To him this was an ever-present hope. True, 



1890] PAST FEELING 



373 



he longed to see a righteous administration established in 
the country ; but for this he would always rather look to 
Providence than try to play the part of Providence him- 
self. Like the apostles, he would "give himself to 
prayer and to the ministry of the Word." Though in 
public affairs he would not withhold advice nor even re- 
buke, if needed, his feeling towards all around him was, 
" That I might by any means save some." For this 
reason the utter indifference of the Barotsi to all higher 
things was heartbreaking both to him and his wife. 
They seemed to have neither heart nor conscience ; they 
did not seem emotional and affectionate like the Basutos 
and most Africans. He attributed this to their having so 
little real family life. " Who being past feeling have 
given themselves up," exactly expressed their condition. 
One word covered everything: "Ho bapala," to amuse 
oneself. Everything was so much material for laughter ; 
tears were never seen. Even national affairs were treated 
without dignity ; royal councils usually ended in brawls. 
In private conversations or public addresses every men- 
tion of Divine things was greeted with shouts of derisive 
laughter and mimicry ; the king's court jester would sit 
in front of the preacher on Sundays, distracting the 
audience with his antics. 

" You must not mind them," said Lewanika after one 
such performance. " The Barotsi are made like that." 

" I never see any one laughing when the king speaks 
at the lekhothla," said M. Coillard. The hint was taken, 
and by degrees they learnt decorum. But to hear respect- 
fully was not to heed. M. Coillard wrote : — 

" I do not know in what language to make our friends 
understand that the savages — ours, that is — are not the 
least the sweet, simple, affectionate, confiding creatures 
they are represented to be in Europe ; that they have not 



374 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the slightest desire to hear, and still less to receive, the 
Gospel." 

Yet he said in another letter (the first after his 
arrival) : — 

"We seek involuntarily among these people the 'brothers 
and sisters ' who are promised to us, and whom the Grace 
of God will reveal to us one day. We shall love these 
Barotsi not only as human beings for whom Christ died, 
but as sociable fellow-creatures." 

The people being so absolutely subject to their chiefs, 
it was evidently all-important that the king should 
embrace Christianity, but this he has never yet done. 
Twice he has been on the point of it. The first time the 
chiefs went to him by night and told him if he did so 
there would be a revolution. The second time was after 
his return from England, so impressed had he been by 
what he had seen of the power of the Gospel. "Even 
King Edward was crowned in a church," he said. But 
again he was turned back. This step, which his father 
could not or would not venture upon, was taken by his 
son and heir, Litia, who had been under the training of 
the Coillards from their arrival. Although, unfortunately, 
his conduct has not always been at the level of his pro- 
fession — and lately he has fallen away still further — there 
can be no doubt that it was sincere at the time, and that 
it has helped the Mission more than any other outward 
circumstance. He has always till lately shown himself 
free from superstition, and remarkably truthful. To 
this even travellers have testified. The chiefs assured 
him that he should never reign, and even threatened to 
kill him if he persisted in his profession of Christianity ; 
he calmly disregarded their menaces. His confession of 



1891] THE KING'S WIVES 375 



faith was made on Sunday, October 18, 1891. Till then 
there had been no conversion, and no sign of one, outside 
the missionaries' households. Mme. Coillard was present 
with her husband ; it was the last time she was ever to 
visit the capital. Her health had never recovered from 
the strain of the first expedition to the Zambesi ; it 
broke down as soon as they arrived the second time. 
Nevertheless her indomitable spirit had carried her 
through the nine years of suffering and hardship since 
her return to Africa in 1881. In response to the king's 
earnest invitation she had risen from a sick-bed to make 
this journey (" Christina so frail she looked like wax," 
says her husband's journal), and had spent two or three 
days among the ladies of his household, trying to turn 
their poor frivolous minds to higher thoughts while 
cutting out dresses for them and fitting them on. To 
the king's chief wife she gave a beautiful piece of stuff 
sent as a present to herself, which she thought too smart 
for her own use. 

"Is it enough for a dress ? " asked the princess. 

"Yes." 

" Then why haven't you made it up for me ? " 
" Because I am too weak and ill to sew even for 
myself." 

" Then you can take it back. What are you here for if 
it is not to make dresses for us ? " 

"Oh, Ma-Moramboa, that is not nice of you," was 
Mme. Coillard's reply. Those who knew her will realise 
what she had gone through before she could make such 
an answer to such a speech ! Ma-Moramboa is the one 
person whose contempt for the missionaries has never been 
modified. The reason ? Her only son was an epileptic 
idiot, whom the skill of the white man could never cure. 
(He died in 1903, to her inconsolable grief.) Mme. 
Coillard well knew that she spoke then, as always, out of 



376 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the bitterness of a mother's heart, and so she passed it 
over. It was not their insolence, but the awful depravity 
of these poor women that troubled her. 

To return to this memorable Sunday. Litia had been 
absent for some weeks on a journey which ended at 
Mangwato. There he was very much impressed by what 
he saw and heard in Khama's capital, and especially by 
the exhortations of a young man, a Christian, who 
" made friends " with him in the Bechuana fashion. 
He had long been under deep conviction, and these 
conversations brought him to the point of decision. 
This he announced publicly at the lekhothla. M. Coil- 
lard responded : " Your testimony makes us happy. Grod 
only knows if it is sincere ; it is the fruits which will tell 
us. It is said, ' Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and 
all else shall be added to you.' " 

While Litia spoke, his friend Mokamba wept bitterly, 
"because," he said afterwards, "he felt himself such a 
sinner." He had accompanied his young master to 
Mangwato; the two lads were intimate friends. He 
afterwards became a Christian also, and has been Prime 
Minister (Gambella) since 1899. It was he who accom- 
panied King Lewanika to England in 1902 to be present 
at the Coronation. 

This was a bright day for Mme. Coillard. " A Morotsi 
weeping, and weeping for his sins ! I thought a Morotsi 
had no tears to shed ! It is a sight I would have travelled 
a thousand miles to see ; and we have only come from 
Sefula ! " A few days later she begged her husband to 
take her home, saying, " I cannot die here." Ten days 
later she was gone (October 28, 1891). " This place had 
been to her the post of duty and suffering," wrote her 
husband; "but for me, what solitude! " 

" All those thirty years of her mission and married life 



1891] MME. COILLARDS DEATH 377 



had passed before her [during one whole day]. ' Let 
us be in earnest, in earnest ! How swiftly they have 
passed, all those years ; how little I have done ! Bo be 
in earnest, do / ■ " 

She was tenderly nursed by Miss Kiener, a young 
Swiss lady, who had come to them about a year before, 
feeling certain, as she always said, that Mme. Coillard 
needed such help. Though she knew no English and had 
never before left her home in the Jura Mountains, she 
had made the whole journey by herself, travelling from 
Shoshong to the Zambesi in the waggon of a Dutch trans- 
port rider. It was not the least deed of those early days. 

The missionaries at this time were very badly housed, 
owing to the lack of building material in the country and 
the impossibility of commanding labour. The small, 
square mud houses they had at first put up, not expect- 
ing them to be more than a temporary shelter, were 
crumbling away and threatened to dissolve with the first 
rains. The bad dispositions of the chiefs during the 
previous year and a half had prevented them from 
obtaining either labour or materials to rebuild, and it was 
in a veritable hovel that Mme. Coillard breathed her last. 

The Barotsi on this occasion showed real feeling, from 
the king downwards, and since then proofs have never 
been wanting that under the crust of cynicism they have 
hearts like other Africans and other men. But by the 
one bereaved, the loneliness of his position at his age 
was felt overwhelmingly, and more and more as time 
went on. He had always taken an ideal view of wedded 
life, as he did of everything else ; he believed the marriage 
of true minds to be not for time only but also for eternity. 
More than most men, he was dependent upon such 
companionship. Life was never the same to him again. 
" I shall never have a home on earth," he often said, and 
so it proved. 



378 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Mme. Coillard's character was a very powerful one. 
She had strong convictions, strong likes and dislikes 
which her intense sincerity did not allow her to disguise. 
Consequently, while she inspired passionate attachments, 
all were not equally drawn to her. She enjoyed the social 
life of Europe and shone in it, but its domestic restrictions 
chafed her spirit, and those who never saw her in her 
own home did not know her as she really was, over- 
flowing with kindness and hospitality, utterly devoted to 
her husband and his work. She had great influence with 
the natives ; more, strange to say, with the men than 
with the women. The Basutos stood rather in awe of 
her, but the sufferings and miseries she witnessed among 
the Barotsi drew out all her compassion and forbearance. 
"Her character had wonderfully grown, softened, and 
beautified since coming to the Zambesi," wrote one of 
those who knew her best. To sorrow she was tenderly 
sympathetic. From first to last she " gave herself 
royally." 

Of their mutual happiness it seems almost sacrilege to 
write, yet something must be said of a union so perfect, 
begun in circumstances so unusual. Knowing from those 
very circumstances that it was not self-will but God's 
Providence that had brought them together, each 
accepted the other with absolute confidence, as a gift 
from Him, and hence as one to be cherished and 
held sacred for the sake of the Giver. The Wise Man 
says: 11 A gift is as a precious stone (marg., stone of 
grace) in the eyes of him that hath it : whithersoever it 
turneth.it prosper eth" ; and this exactly describes what 
they were to one another. The changes and trials of 
their career only served to bring out fresh perfections 
in each other's eyes, so that their whole married life was 
one long series of delightful surprises, a never-ending 
romance. 



1891] THE FLAG FOLLOWS 379 



As far as known, Mme. Coillard was the first of her 
nationality to be buried in Barotsiland.* Eighteen 
months before her death it had become a British 
Protectorate by the earnest desire of King Lewanika 
himself. It was not in order to extend the British 
Empire that she had travelled so far, for "they that 
say such things declare plainly that they seek a country " 
was truer of her than of most. But the land she had 
left for so long was still dear, and it could not be a 
matter of indifference that its flag had followed even to 
the limits of her exile, first in Basutoland, and then to 
the Zambesi, and that the sceptre of her Queen was 
stretched out to protect the tribes she had come so far 
to help. Unfortunately the circumstances attending this 
great movement were so painful (not through the action 
of responsible parties but of mischief-makers) that all 
satisfaction was neutralised for the time being. These 
circumstances must form the subject of another chapter. 

* It is perhaps worth remarking that the first white woman to 
enter Basutoland was also English — Miss Sarah Dyke, the wife of the 
Eev. E. Casalis. 



CHAPTEK XXI 



BAEOTSILAND BECOMES A BRITISH PEOTECTOEATE 



The treaty with the British South Africa Company — First overtures of 
Lewanika — Kharna's counsel — The first pitso — Opposition of the 
chiefs — Mr. Lochner's mission — Eevoking — Treachery of chiefs 
— White slanderers — Persecution of missionaries — A crisis — 
Confidence restored — Poetic justice. 

rjlHE first treaty of the Barotsi monarch with the 



-L British South Africa Company was signed on June 
27, 1890. For him the British Protectorate was the 
crown of his desires, and M. Coillard wrote: "If there 
is one man who perfectly understands the situation, it 
is certainly Lewanika, and it is on him and on his council 
that all the responsibility of these transactions rests. 
M. Adolphe Jalla and I were careful to bring out clearly 
the definite and perpetual character of the concession. 
For my part, I have no doubt that for the nation this 
will prove the one plank of safety. The Barotsi are 
incapable of governing, and, left to themselves, they 
would before long have annihilated each other." 

It is not the purpose of this chapter to tell the story 
of the negotiations, but only to speak of them as they 
affected the Mission. 

During his exile in 1885 Lewanika had heard about 
the Protectorate of Satory (Queen Victoria), which was 



1890-1891 




380 



1888] THE PROTECTORATE 381 



declared up to the Zambesi, when he was taking refuge 
at Libebe's (Chobe River), and it seemed to him just 
what he required to confirm him on his throne. On his 
return to power, the very day after M. Coillard and his 
party arrived (October, 1886), he spoke about it. " I can 
see him now," said Mr. Waddell to the writer, "sitting 
under a tree wrapped in wild-beast skins, and wanting 
M. Coillard to sit down and write a letter to the Queen 
then and there." This request was frequently renewed. 
For some years his missionary steadily refused to comply 
with it, partly because he was not a political agent and 
wished to steer clear of all such affairs, but also because 
Lewanika was the only person in the country who 
desired it, all his chiefs being strongly opposed thereto. 
"If you become a motlanka" (a servant of rulers), they 
said, "it is a humiliation the Barotsi will never accept." 

As time went on, however, and the scramble for Africa 
became acute, it was impossible to keep altogether aloof 
from the subject, since all looked to him for counsel. He 
saw that this immense territory of nearly 200,000 square 
miles stretching on both sides of the Zambesi, which 
Lewanika claimed as his right, would certainly fall to 
the lot of some European Power or be split up amongst 
them, and out of his long experience he believed the 
British Protectorate would be the best. Whatever his 
personal convictions, however, prudence and principle 
alike forbade him to take the initiative. The advice 
he gave was to consult Khama, in whom they all had 
confidence, and who had himself accepted the Protecto- 
rate some years previously. He made it clear to the 
chiefs that, being a Frenchman, he had no national or 
personal interest in bringing it about ; he set forth its 
advantages, and also its disadvantages, since a Protecto- 
rate, like everything else, must be paid for in some way 
or another. The whole thing was threshed out in the 



382 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



lekhothla one day in October, 1888. On this occasion 
the chiefs indignantly rejected the idea of a guardianship 
which they clearly saw would limit their arbitrary powers, 
and nearly lynched Liomba, the one chief who supported 
Lewanika's proposals. Lewanika was so imprudent as 
to betray that he wanted the Protectorate to secure him 
against another revolution ; they instantly interpreted 
this to mean that Liomba had accused them to their 
master of plotting and sorcery. The assemblage ended 
in a free fight, and M. and Mme. Coillard, who were 
both present, saved Liomba's life with great difficulty, 
the official Natamoyo having found it convenient to be 
out of the way as soon as the rioting began. This 
rescue did not increase their popularity with the dis- 
appointed mob. 

However, the subject, once mooted, could not be 
dropped, and finally M. Coillard consented to write a 
letter on the king's behalf to Sir Sidney Sheppard, 
Administrator of British Bechuanaland. This letter was 
accompanied by one from Lewanika to Khama, asking 
his advice. 

Khama's reply was as follows : — 

" Shoshong, July 17, 1889. 

" Concerning the word you ask me about the Government of the 
English, I can only say it is a thing for each Chief to do for himself. 

" I rejoice in it, but I cannot advise you ; you are Chief, and must 
do for yourself what you desire. 

" I have the people of the great Queen with me, and I am glad to 
have them. I live in peace with them, and I have no fear of the 
Matabele or the Boers any longer attacking me ; that is the thing 
which I know and can tell you. 

" If you wish to speak with the great Government, and if you wish 
to see some great man from the Queen's Government, then if you ask 
me, I will let the Government know, and a man will be sent to speak 
with you and hear your words. — I am, your friend, 

(Signed auto graphically) " Khama, 

M Chief of the Ba-mangwato." 



1890] MR C. J. RHODES 383 



Two months later (September 1, 1889) Sir Sidney 
Sheppard informed M. Coillard that Mr. Ehodes had 
written to the Board of the British South Africa Com- 
pany supporting Lewanika's petition. Without fully 
knowing its greatness and importance, he had seen and 
grasped the opportunity. Almost immediately after- 
wards, the envoy of the Company, Mr. Elliot Lochner, 
left for Barotsiland to open negotiations, but he travelled 
at a bad time of year, and did not arrive till April, 1890. 
Mr. Bhodes had also written to M. Coillard himself, who 
replied to his letter as follows : — * 

F. Coillard to C. J. Ehodes, Esq. 

" Sefula, Barotsi Valley, 

"April 8, 1890. 

" Dear Sir, — I have duly received yours of October 12, 
1889. Since then Mr. Lochner has arrived, and has al- 
ready seen the king. He has come here to us to rest 
and recruit his health, which has been shattered by 
frequent attacks of fever. 

" I have little doubt as to the ultimate result of Mr. 
Lochner's mission. . . . [Here follows a description of 
the actual state of affairs.] . . . You inquire of me if I 
can accept the Besidency. Well, I cannot serve two 
masters. But if without any official title I can be to your 
Company of any service as a medium of communication 
[italics not his own], and until you get the proper man, 
I willingly place myself at your disposal. 

" But in case Mr. Lochner's mission succeeds, I would 
strongly urge of you to act with promptitude, decision, 
and firmness. The choice of your representative here is 
a matter of the greatest importance, as much will depend 

* This letter is reproduced by kind permission of the British South 
African Company's Board. 



384 COIL LARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



on his personal character and qualities. A mistake in 
the choice of the man might involve the Company in 
much unpleasantness and trouble. 

" His escort ought to be such as to impress the natives 
that there is a new and real power in the land. . . . 

{Signed) " F. Coillard." 

Owing to his broken health, Mr. Lochner remained the 
Coillards' guest more or less during the whole time of his 
stay in the Barotsi Valley. This circumstance, coupled 
with the fact that M. Coillard was obliged to act as in- 
terpreter throughout all the negotiations, unfortunately 
identified the mission in the eyes of the Barotsi with the 
British Protectorate, much as M. Coillard desired to avoid 
such a construction being put upon his behaviour in the 
matter. It was inevitable at the time, but it led to much 
subsequent trouble. As a matter of fact, apart from his 
services as interpreter to both sides impartially, the only 
action M. Coillard took was to secure as far as possible 
the interests of the natives and the rights of the king and 
chiefs. In this he succeeded. The above letter to the 
late Mr. C. J. Ehodes proves the entire independence of 
his attitude. He would not consent to be anything but 
an intermediary, and even that he only contemplated for 
a few months until the Besident should arrive (Mr. — 
now Sir — Harry Johnston), as was then intended. The 
troubles in Matabeleland prevented this for seven years. 
As will now be seen, the slanders of which he immediately 
became the object obliged him in a very short time to 
decline all further responsibility. 

Barotsiland was so little known at that time that 
the Company's ambassador had no idea beforehand of 
Lewanika's power and importance, and the extent of 
his realm. He found, in short, that he had hooked a 
much bigger fish than he expected, and one that in 



1890] KHAMA'S LOYALTY 385 



consequence gave a good deal more play than he was 
altogether prepared for. 

It has already been said that most of the chiefs were 
strongly opposed to the British Protectorate, and would 
rather have deposed Lewanika than accepted it. Their 
objections were almost wholly selfish ; they knew it 
would restrict their power and its abuses, and by degrees 
they were apparently overcome, though not without great 
difficulty and much delay. At the critical moment of the 
negotiations, when the safety as well as the success of 
Mr. Lochner's mission was trembling in the balance, 
Khama's ambassador, Makoatsa, entered the lekhothla 
with his suite, and delivered a message from his master 
in these words : — 

" Barotsi, I have tasted a delicious dish " (i.e., British 
Protection), " and I have shared it with you. What have 
you done with it ? To-day, I hear that you speak again 
of revolutions. Take care. Lewanika is my friend, and 
if you dare to make attempts against his life and power, 
I am Khama. You will see me with your eyes and 
hear me." 

This oration turned the scale. In the end the chiefs 
unanimously affixed their marks to the treaty on 
June 27, 1890. [This agreement was superseded by 
another in 1898.] 

One word must here be said of Khama's perfect loyalty 
not only to the Imperial Government, but to his friend 
and ally, Lewanika. He has sometimes been taunted 
with the fact that it was to his interest to be true to the 
British Government. But it was not to his immediate 
interest to be true to Lewanika. It would have saved 
him much trouble for the Matabele to be driven across 
the Zambesi to prey upon the Barotsi, as many papers 
and politicians advocated at the time. The Barotsi 
would thus have been reduced to a position inferior to 

26 



386 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



his own. Instead of that, he has done his best at 
different times of crisis to confirm Lewanika on his 
throne, to warn and fortify him against enemies at home 
and abroad, and without flattery or cant, to strengthen 
his dawning convictions that " righteousness exalteth a 
nation." All that has been done frankly and above- 
board in full lekhothla, without any of the miserable 
ntho ea malapa (back-yard business) by means of which 
the diplomatic intercourse of chiefs has too often been 
carried on, in order to the undoing of the white man ; 
and also without swerving from his allegiance to the 
English. 

It was not very easy to make the Barotsi understand 
the position of the Company in all this, for it was the 
direct protection of the Queen, as in a Crown Colony, 
that Lewanika had desired. This misunderstanding was 
skilfully played upon by traitors for their own purposes. 
No sooner had Mr. Lochner left the country than the 
repressed opposition burst forth in a tempest, and, as 
usual in such cases, the missionaries were its lightning 
conductors. There was another cause for this hostility. 
The reforms already begun by Lewanika had struck at 
too many vested interests to be popular. Gradually it 
had come home to the chiefs that the teaching they had 
welcomed was not a profitable magic, but a moral dis- 
cipline that ran counter to all their prejudices, and its 
messengers were not at all in public favour. Advantage 
of this was taken by a couple of disappointed concession- 
hunters, posing as the champions of the Barotsi people, 
to stir up a clamour against them, saying they had per- 
suaded the king to sell his country, not even to the 
British Crown, but to a mere mining and trading asso- 
ciation, "which would keep every one else out, and would 
soon leave them no place to sit down." In this they were 
aided by X, a working man of little skill or education, 



1890] PLOTS AND CALUMNIES 387 



who had been for some years a lay helper of the Mission, 
and had parted from it apparently on the best of terms. 
Whether he had been playing a part all the time, or 
whether his character had undergone one of those cli- 
matic transformations which, unfortunately, are not 
unknown in Africa, it is impossible to say. It was not 
until long afterwards that M. Coillard learnt in detail 
the personal accusations made against him by this man, 
which prepared the king's mind for the attack upon his 
public character which followed. The pressure brought 
to bear upon Lewanika by these traitors was such that 
he confiscated all the mails and informed M. Coillard 
that he would not get any of his letters until he himself 
had overhauled them in company with the Englishman 
now acting as his secretary. 

It so chanced that one of the first letters thus opened 
came from a well-known traveller, to whom some time 
before Lewanika had entrusted a sum of money, asking 
him to procure for him a gun of a particular pattern. 
The traveller now enclosed the money (a banknote for 
about £50), asking M. Coillard to return it to the king, 
as he had not been able to execute the commission. The 
use made of this to blacken the character of the mis- 
sionary (who, of course, had not even seen the letter) and 
to mislead the king, can hardly be believed. Nothing 
was left undone to identify the Mission with the Com- 
pany and to discredit both, so as to get the one turned 
out of the country and the other kept out. Letters of 
astounding impudence were addressed to the High Com- 
missioner and the Foreign Office, protesting against " the 
proposed monopoly" on the ground that Lewanika (save 
the mark !) " was an out-and-out free-trader " — Lewanika, 
who by the very constitution of his kingdom was prob- 
ably the greatest monopolist living ! The pretext ap- 
parently was the clause in the treaty which stated that 



388 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



undesirable white men would not be allowed to settle in 
the country — a clause designed to protect the Barotsi, but 
which the "secretary" and his friends chose to consider 
was aimed at themselves. 

Not only did they control the incoming mails, but also 
the outgoing ones, so that no letters should leave the 
country without their cognizance, meanwhile spreading 
all kinds of stories in Europe just where they were likely 
to do the Mission most harm. These miscreants actually 
tried to obtain men from Lewanika to burn down the 
Mission Station at Sefula over the heads of its inhabitants. 
Lewanika refused, of course — nevertheless the Mission 
Station did take fire one night in July, 1890, and the 
occupants had the greatest difficulty in extinguishing it. 
The kitchen was destroyed. By a providential circum- 
stance the fire was seen at once by a little girl who was 
sleeping there for the first time, and who, feeling restless, 
looked out and gave the warning. At the time it was 
supposed to have been an accident ; but though Lewanika 
would not lend himself to such a thing, there were plenty 
of others not so scrupulous. 

Proof would be impossible, but the two who had tried 
to incite them to do this at Lealui, boasted openly of 
having burnt down the storehouses of some other 
missionaries at Sesheke.* These were Primitive Metho- 
dists, awaiting Lewanika's permission (afterwards 
accorded) to establish themselves among the Mashiku- 
lumbwe. Owing to a perfectly innocent breach of native 
custom on their part, they were accused of witchcraft 
against the Queen Mokwae, carried off to her temporary 
court at Linyanti with one of the French missionaries, 
M. G-oy, and barbarously ill-used. Orders were indeed 
given to leave them on an island of the river to die of 

* See Exploration and Hunting in Central Africa (Methuen), 
pp. 159-60. The missionaries were MM. Baldwin and Walker. 



1891] 



A SUMMONS 



389 



starvation and of their maltreatment, and these orders 
would have been carried out if M. Goy had not insisted 
upon being taken down river in the same boat with them. 
All this increased the popular agitation, for these 
missionaries, being English, were all supposed to be in 
the conspiracy against the nation. The chiefs of Sesheke 
threatened to depose Lewanika, and he dared not oppose 
them too openly, though he did his best to save the 
missionary whom he really loved (as King Darius did 
Daniel), and gave him confidential and mysterious warn- 
ings drawn from the misfortunes of the Primitive 
Methodists. This went on for months, till by May, 
1891, the whole nation had worked itself into a frenzy. 

At last, as was inevitable, a crisis came. No courteous 
invitation was sent, but late one evening M. Coillard was 
rudely summoned to the capital by what was virtually 
a band of police. They did not even bring a letter or 
token. From this interview he hardly expected to return 
alive, since, if it took place in the lekhothla, and the 
chiefs turned against him, he knew it would not be in 
Lewanika's power to save him. It was unsafe to take 
his wife with him, and yet — if he were killed, what would 
become of her and Waddell ? (M. Ad. Jalla was absent 
in Europe.) But fortunately the interview was private, 
and stormy as it proved, victory eventually lay with him. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" Sefula, June 4, 1891. 
" Never yet such a tempest. The devil has let loose 
all the elements against us. My visit to the capital 
caused us all the greatest anxieties. It was not an 
ordinary visit, it was a summons. I felt very much 
inclined not to go, but that would have been adding fuel 
to the fire. Never, perhaps, have we cried to God so 



390 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



earnestly. The ill-treatment they have made Mr. Baldwin 
undergo on the most frivolous of pretexts is a warning to 
me. . . . My person is not safe. The very thought is 
horrible, but God will give me His grace. I count upon 
it. The humiliating side of my position is nothing. I 
accept that. I ought not to have busied myself with all 
those affairs of the Protectorate ; and yet I was the only 
medium for communications between these strangers and 
the king. But it is the work itself which preoccupies 
me. It is gravely compromised, alas ! ... if the Lord 
does not come to our help. He knows that all my desire 
is that He should be glorified whatever may happen to 
me. But, 0 my God, let not Thy servant be the martyr 
of a political transaction ! . . . 

" [May 30th]. . . . Immediately after breakfast the 
king had X. called. I offered him my hand ; he refused 
it. I asked the king why he had sent for me. He told 
me it was to discuss with X. the affairs of the concession 
and to break Lochner's contract. I showed him how idle 
such a discussion was, and the impossibility of breaking 
the contract. He then set to work to attack the 
character of the Company. . . . Hence, it fell to my 
part to contradict this whole farrago of false inter- 
pretations, showing first of all their falseness and then 
establishing the real facts. I had to bring out in its 
proper light the character of the Company, which is not 
at all a simple mining association, but which has received 
a charter from the Government. Alas ! I know that the 
weak point on my side is that it is not the Government 
itself ; but it presumes it, affirms it, and will bring it 
about like the British East Africa Company. The dis- 
cussion became acute. X. was very angry. I confronted 
him with the king, and laid bare the lies and calumnies 
of which I had been the object. 

"'Who told you that?' said X. 'To whom did I 



1891] 



THE CRISIS 



391 



accuse you of having been bought over (soudoye) by the 
Company ? ' 

" ' To the King : ask him.' 

" Poor Lewanika was on thorns, wriggling like a 
worm. ' Oh,' he said, ' perhaps it was I who imagined 
it. You must not insist too much.' I was appalled to 
see and put my finger on the lies and intrigues of these 
two men. I felt like a fly fallen into the web of two 
spiders. What made me most indignant in all that was 
X.'s want of good faith in the whole matter — a want of 
good faith of which I could not have believed him capable. 
Thus, in the article of the contract which says that ' the 
country will be closed to immigration, and that except 
the employes of the Company no one can enter it without 
the king's consent ' [a clause introduced entirely in the 
interests of the Barotsi], he made Lewanika believe that 
. . . the Company had secured this right for itself and 
the monopoly of it. ... It was just the same with the 
article which designated Kazungula (the official ford of 
the Zambesi) as the only entrance to the country apart 
from the king's special permission. It was a measure of 
safeguarding himself on Lewanika's part. He, X., makes 
out that he [the king] has alienated all his rights, and 
that he can no longer open any other door to go out of 
his own country. 

" This sitting lasted from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. . . . [The 
next day] Sunday, I spoke on 2 Cor. v. 21 : ' We are 
ambassadors for Christ.' I insisted upon the repre- 
sentative authority and the inviolable character of an 
ambassador : then made the application to those of Jesus 
Christ. I related the scene which had taken place at 
Sesheke [the ill-treatment of Mr. Baldwin], and raised 
my voice very plainly against the conduct of Queen 
Mokwae and the chiefs. They listened breathlessly. . . . 

" Monday morning early we resumed the discussion. 



392 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



. . . The object of X. and the king was to throw off all 
responsibility on to me. ... I carried away a suffocating 
feeling from this last interview. ... I did not reach 
home till 7 p.m. Christina was waiting for me. ' Is it 
all right ? ' she called to me, from as far as she could. 
She had been on the rack. . . . Not a hair of my head 
had been touched. Hence I could reply, * Yes, it is all 
right.' And yet all was not right. . . ." 

One thing that perplexed Lewanika very much was 
the absence of any letters from Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment confirming this treaty. Having chosen to quarrel 
with the missionary, he had got X. to write letters for 
him to the High Commissioner and the Colonial Secretary, 
but they were of such a character that no notice could be 
taken of them. In fact, no Government would be likely 
to believe, what was nevertheless the fact, that they had 
been written at Lewanika's request. M. Coillard now 
reluctantly consented to write one for him. 

Journal F. C. : — 

" I had sent back to the king the copy of the message 
he is sending the Company. He replied by a furious and 
impertinent letter, imperiously demanding of me to let 
him know what was my own position relative to the 
Company by showing him my own letter. He had no 
right to do so, but as my position is compromised, and 
it is important above all not to let the least cloud rest 
upon my character as a minister of Jesus Christ, I sent 
him my letter. . . . That satisfied the king. But only 
for a time. 

" June 21, 1891. 
" 1 am fairly calm and confident. Deliverance is sure, 



1891] TAMPERING WITH MAILS 393 



so sure, that in spite of the storm I have ordered a small 
hand saw-mill from Waddell's brother." 

Undoubtedly the intention was to drive the Mission 
out of the country, and for some time to come it seemed 
as if its members too were to be thrown as a sop to the 
wolves — the angry chiefs. Though the worst was over, 
it was long before confidence was restored. Lewanika 
would be kind and caressing at intervals, but he still 
kept away from the station, and would frequently burst 
out in storms of anger and insult. "What do we want 
with that rubbish-heap of fables that you call the Bible ? 
What does your school do for us? For you it is the 
trade you live by ; for us it is a purposeless and profitless 
folly." Not by any dramatic stroke, but by reiterated 
explanations and by the exercise of infinite tact and 
self-control, M. Coillard at last succeeded in soothing 
him down and persuading him to take no active steps 
against the treaty or the Company until he received 
some authoritative reply to the letters he had written 
to responsible persons. 

The last move in this campaign was that X., when he 
left the country in July, recalled by his employers, and 
carrying the mail-bag with him, separated the whole of 
M. and Mme. Coillard's correspondence and left it at the 
Lower River (four batches of different dates) in order 
that all these important matters should become still 
further embroiled by delay. 

However confidently they might bear themselves, these 
things preyed upon their spirits, and there is no doubt 
that they shortened Mme. Coillard's life, as they haunted 
her last hours. "My darling, my darling, they are slan- 
dering you! " she was reiterating all through the delirium 
of one night. 

But already, two weeks before her death, things had 



394 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



taken a turn for the better. When Litia returned from 
Mangwato (as already related, p. 376) he was the bearer 
of a serious and peremptory message from Khama to 
Lewanika, remonstrating with him and his chiefs for 
going back upon their own words and wishes. This 
message was delivered by the young prince himself at 
the lekhothla, and thus was calculated to produce the 
greatest possible impression. Coupled with his own 
profession of Christian faith made before the same 
assemblage two days later, it had a tremendous effect. 
Public opinion was prepared to receive favourably a letter 
from the High Commissioner which arrived in November, 
1891. It announced that H.M. Queen Victoria had 
recognised Lewanika's treaty with the Company, and 
that an honourable Protectorate was now assured to him. 
This reply, dated September 19, 1891, had been delayed by 
a definite cause. The Conference of European Powers 
in 1890 to settle their respective spheres of influence in 
Africa had fixed the Zambesi Kiver as the provisional 
western frontier between the Portuguese and the British 
in Central Africa, thus cutting the country of Lewanika 
in half. It had apparently never occurred to them that 
this might be the case or that it would mattei if it were. 

The Company could not honourably profess to pro- 
tect a native chief if it let him be robbed of half his 
territories, and hence made energetic representations to 
the Foreign and Colonial Offices. The British Govern- 
ment did not want a dispute with Portugal just when 
the question of Delagoa Bay was rather a critical one. 
A great deal was said in Europe and elsewhere about 
England's lust of territory and the wickedness of quar- 
relling over a few square miles of swamp and sand, by 
people who did not realise that two very serious things 
would be involved in yielding on this point : first, the 
robbing of a native ruler ; secondly, the perpetuation 



1891] THE TREATY RATIFIED 395 



of the devastating labour agencies (as they must be 
called) of the mambaris, which were depopulating whole 
regions and strewing the caravan routes with skeletons. 
By determined efforts the Company succeeded in getting 
the matter referred to the arbitration of the King of Italy. 
His award was announced in 1905. Lewanika did not 
secure all he claimed ; as usual, the arbitrators split 
the difference ; but probably he got as much as he had 
ever been able to occupy effectively. 

It is hardly necessary to point out that if the Barotsi 
had persisted in their intention of disregarding the treaty 
a costly native war would have been the sequel. It had 
thus been averted, first by M. Coillard's representations 
and then by those of Khama (see p. 385). The pro- 
clamation put an end to all the worst troubles and 
restored confidence both between himself and Lewanika 
personally, and between the Mission and the nation. 

The absurdity of the insinuations made against M. 
Coillard's relations with the Company was fully demon- 
strated. Soon afterwards Lewanika had a violent quarrel 
with X. (who had returned to the country), and drove 
him away with so little ceremony that it was only 
through M. Coillard's intercession on his behalf that 
he could obtain a canoe in which to depart. 



CHAPTEE XXII 



BEIGHTEE DAYS AT LEALUI 
1892-1896 

M. Coillard removes to Lealui — A spiritual awakening — A journey 
up-river — Dangerous illness — Eeturn to Europe— Overthrow of 
the Matabele — Arrival of the British Resident. 

IN October, 1892, on the anniversary of his wife's 
death, M. Coillard left Sefula and took up his residence 
at the capital itself. The ant-hill of Loatile was assigned 
to him for the station ; the spot where formerly sor- 
cerers were burnt, still encumbered with human bones, 
covered with brushwood, and swarming with snakes, rats, 
frogs, ants, and every other creeping thing. His horror 
of snakes and frogs was equal to St. Patrick's own, so 
that it could not be an attractive residence, still it was 
a proof that those days were over. He was cordially 
welcomed at the lekhothla by the very chiefs who had 
been ready to burn him there little more than a year 
before. " To-day our father comes amongst us, all these 
plots will end. He is a Morotsi, one of ourselves, and his 
home is here." 

From that time the position of the Mission and its 
permanency have never been seriously in question. 

All did not go smoothly, of course ; that would have 
been impossible. There were dark moments of pillage 
and boycotting from time to time. There were many, 
very many, sources of private sorrow and difficulty in 

396 



1894] AN AWAKENING 397 

the work which cannot here be told. What M. Coillard 
felt most sorely in his loneliness was the persistent way 
in which his attached and trained attendants were enticed 
away from his service by the king and his son Litia, and 
were thus lost not only to himself but to the Church. 
But on the whole the years between 1892 and 1897 have 
so far been the happiest period of the work. In 1894 a 
spiritual awakening took place, which spread to all the 
stations and led to many professed conversions. Although 
this blossoming has not produced all the fruit that was 
hoped for, and has not yet been renewed, still it was in 
itself a sign of life, and all those who are now Christians 
trace their conversion, or the beginning of it, to this 
time. The wandering habits of the people made it 
impossible to keep their conduct under observation, 
and also made it difficult to give them regular in- 
struction. They were sent all over the country to work 
for their chiefs, perhaps only spending three or six weeks 
in a year near the Mission stations. Consequently there 
are very few indeed whom it has been thought wise or 
right to baptize, as there was little hope that their lives 
would adorn the Gospel, however earnest their profes- 
sions of faith. 

It may be asked why there are so many beautiful 
stories to be told of Basuto Christians, and none about 
the Barotsi. Such stories might be told with truth 
about the Barotsi, but it would be very unwise to do so. 
The work is too recent, they are not established in the 
Faith, and to speak of them as if they were might prove 
to be " glorying in appearance, and not in heart." The 
reaping time for souls has not yet come, but the results 
of the Mission are visible in changed lives and changed 
laws. 

It was during these years (1891-7) that most of the 
reforms alluded to in the last chapter became general, 



398 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



and also that the Barotsi nation was freed from the 
scourge of the Matabele. Just before Lo Bengula's power 
was finally broken, his hordes crossed the Zambesi and 
raided the Batoka country round Victoria Falls. The 
Bev. Louis Jalla thus describes the result : — 

" I decided (in September, 1893) ... to see with my own eyes 
the havoc wrought by the enemy. I found the chief camped under 
a shelter of branches at half an hour's distance from his village 
(which had been burnt), and surrounded by about fifty men and 
women who had escaped from the massacre. I only saw two old 
men, and two or three children ; all the rest had perished miserably 
at the hands of the Matabele. . . . An impi [had] detached itself 
from the main band, reached the Batoka by forced marches, and 
taking their victims quite by surprise, surrounded them before they 
suspected anything. The people fled into the woods, but the Mata- 
bele stationed themselves on every path, even making new ones to 
be sure of letting no one escape. Then one morning they swooped 
down from all parts — more than fifty directions at once — upon these 
poor creatures, and made an appalling slaughter, over which they 
spent the whole day ; they also took an enormous number of 
prisoners, whom they throttled immediately. Then they camped for 
the night on the banks of the Umgwesi. There took place another 
horrible butchery. All the prisoners were murdered without excep- 
tion, and the details given by some eye-witnesses who were left for 
dead, but revived by the fresh night air, make one shudder. Some 
men were hung by the feet to trees, and left thus with assegais in 
their bodies ; others bound to a tree trunk and burnt by slow fires to 
judge by their shrivelled and blackened hands. Numbers of little 
children were strung by the feet to a long perch, under which the 
enemy lighted fires, the better to enjoy the cries of these little 
victims. And so on. . . . When we reached [the spot] the camp 
was just as the enemy had left it. On all sides bones were lying 
about, scattered by the hyaenas and vultures who had been enjoying 
the carcases for the last month. . . . Judging by the remains lying 
among the skeletons, the majority of the prisoners had been women, 
especially young girls." 

M. Coillard wrote (May, 1894) on hearing of their over- 
throw and of Lo Bengula's miserable death from wounds 
received in Wilson's engagement at the Shangani Eiver : 



1894] THE MATABELE CRUSHED 399 



"But these human tigers had filled up the cup of 
their iniquity, and it overflowed : the innocent blood of 
women and little children cried to God — judgment has 
come at last ! As a nation the Matabele have ceased to 
exist. For ourselves — I mean for the Barotsi — the end 
of the Matabele means peace and security, in so far as 
external affairs are concerned." 

A JOUBNEY UP ElVEE. 

M. Coillard had long desired to explore the upper 
reaches of the Zambesi in search of new openings for 
mission work, and in June, 1895, he was able to carry 
out this plan ; to visit the Balunda and Balubale tribes 
and to photograph some hitherto unexplored tributaries 
of the Zambesi. Lewanika encouraged the plan, and 
much against his missionary's wish, insisted on providing 
him with an escort of several chiefs, who each brought 
their retinue and paddlers for their canoes, forty persons 
in all. It was a company too few to protect, and large 
enough to arouse suspicion, but his friend must needs 
travel in a way worthy of himself, he said. They were 
hospitably received by Sinde and other important chiefs, 
and at first all went well till they left the Barotsi Valley 
and reached the Balubale tribes. These were counted as 
Lewanika's vassals, but they were unwilling subjects and 
he had had to send an army against them only three 
years before to exact the tribute due ; hence they did not 
receive the visitors at all cordially. Moreover, as the 
villagers were universally intoxicated (another proof that 
Lewanika's writ did not run there), and a locust famine 
had ravaged the country, supplies ran short. When they 
drew near the village of Kakenge, the principal potentate 
of those parts, M. Coillard sent to him announcing his 
arrival and his credentials by an important chief who, 
however, did not think fit to deliver this message. The 



400 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



consequence was that when he and his party reached 
Kakenge's they were rudely greeted, refused food, and 
bidden to camp on the other side of the river. As it was 
late, they were allowed to stay where they were for the 
night, but armed men surrounded them with war-dances 
and yells all night, and in the morning they conducted them 
to Kakenge's court. Throughout Africa it is the rule that 
no weapons, except clubs, are taken into the lekhothla 
(a measure of great prudence !) and the Barotsi conse- 
quently had left theirs outside. They were astonished to 
see their host surrounded by warriors in full war paint 
with stacks of Portuguese guns in front of them. He 
drove them away with abuse and without offering them 
the usual " ox of welcome," or even the liyumbu, or food 
of hospitality. The Barotsi were greatly alarmed, and 
the fact that they were nearly starving as well did not 
raise their spirits. Some of them, as soon as they had 
got their fowling-pieces in their hands again, wanted to 
attack the people who were insulting their king in the 
person of his friend and of the two envoys who accom- 
panied him. Others were for loading the canoes and 
escaping by night. M. Coillard vetoed both suggestions. 
Indeed, the boldest course was as usual the most politic, 
for the chief who had failed to deliver their message 
would certainly (as it turned out) have murdered them all 
on the way back. He therefore told them about his 
adventures with Masonda (p. 245) and said, " Mark my 
word, it will be just the same here. The heart of 
Kakenge is as much in the hand of God as that of 
Lewanika or of Masonda. To-morrow, you will see, 
Kakenge will not only send us food, but will give us 
words of peace." 

"As for myself, I was calm and confident because I felt 
that the glory of my God was at stake. No one slept, of 
course ; all were crying to God, and the heathen louder 




nature's gentleman. 
The Chief Sinde (now dead) with his hookah. 



[To face p. 100. 



1895] 



KAKENGE 



401 



than any. The morning broke, we had not been attacked. 
But where was the promised deliverance ? The whole 
morning passed thus — waiting. Nothing! The after- 
noon wore on. Nothing! At last towards three o'clock, 
a procession which I saw coming out of the village 
advanced slowly towards us. It was the promised food 
from Kakenge* Baskets of manioc, millet, sweet pota- 
toes, fowls, and what not ! 

" ' Moruti,' said an old man, ' here are the liyumbu of 
Kakenge. Now give him a present worthy of himself 
and of yourself.' ... At last I put my hand on a piece 
of stuff which caught the eyes of my Balubale, and not 
to embroil matters anew, I said to my people, ' Come, I 
will carry it myself to Kakenge ; let us go and thank 
him for his food.' Seeing us break into the lekhothla, 
Kakenge fled into his court. I sent him the stuff and 
said to my people, ' Now for the royal salutation.' Their 
mighty yosho and hand-clappings produced such an effect 
that Kakenge himself, in spite of his dignity, hurried up, 
took his stool, and planted himself right in front of me. 
' Now,' he said, ' I believe in your good intentions. I 
had sent orders up the river to have you arrested ' [in 
other words, massacred, as some of their ' blood-brothers ' 
told the Barotsi had been determined upon]. ' I am going 
to countermand them, and my own people shall conduct 
you to Nyaka-toro.' " 

Their leader dared not place too much faith in these 
promises, as evidently it was a country where messages 
were apt to go astray (none having been received that the 
party had sent), so he decided to return to Lealui, after 
a day or two at Kakenge's. That chief was quite grieved 
to let them go. " Come back next year," he said, after 
M. Coillard and some of the Christians who accompanied 

* Promised, that is, by F. C. Kakenge had made no such promise. 

27 



402 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



him had preached in the lekhothla, " and I will give you 
two of my children to take away and teach." 

Twelve men of the expedition were so impressed by the 
proof that God hears prayer that they professed them- 
selves Christians at the lekhothla on their return. 

The result of this journey was not only to prove the 
needs of the northern region, but to bring the Barotsi 
into friendly relations with their late enemies and to 
pave the way for future peaceful intercourse. The 
missionaries of Garenganze have several times made the 
journey to and fro from Lealui by river since then quite 
unmolested. Already in 1898 one of them wrote that 
some of their own converts, having occasion to travel 
down the Zambesi, met with some Christian Barotsi 
travelling northward, and at once they greeted each 
other as brothers, and shared each others' food as if they 
were of the same tribe. In former days they would have 
fought at once, or else have gripped their weapons and 
fled into the forest. However, Kakenge and his neigh- 
bours were allotted to the Portuguese dominion by the 
Frontier Arbitration of 1905. 

During all this journey M. Coillard was in very bad 
health, which grew rapidly worse after his return. After 
enduring months of acute suffering, he was obliged to 
leave for Kimberley and submit to an operation, which 
was performed by Dr. Mackenzie, son of the well-known 
missionary of Bechuanaland. It proved completely 
successful, and at once he wanted to return to the 
Zambesi. This proved impossible, for the Second Mata- 
bele "War, which had meantime broken out, barred the 
way, so he turned his face towards Europe, not knowing 
whether he would ever be able to return to Africa. 

Passing through Wellington, he saw his beloved friends 
the Rev. Andrew Murray and at Stellenbosch Mr. 
Neethling. The latter initiated a subscription among 



189S] A CONTRAST 



403 



the Dutch pastors, and in order that M. Coillard, in his 
weak and suffering state, might travel comfortably, they 
remitted to him more than i>100 as a mark of their 
brotherly sympathy. How much this touched him need 
not be told. 

All this time the troubles in Matabeleland had made 
it impossible for the British South Africa Company to 
fulfil its pledge of sending a representative to Lewanika's 
court, but though Lewanika complained of this very 
much at the time, there is no doubt that the delay was 
all for the best. The progress of reforms prepared the 
nation to accept decrees of good government which 
earlier might have roused opposition. Moreover, the 
destruction of the Matabele power, from which the 
Barotsi tribes had suffered so cruelly, gave Great Britain 
a title to the confidence of the latter when the first 
Administrator, Mr. E. T. Coryndon, arrived in 1897. 

" What a difference," wrote M. Coillard at the ford 
of the Zambesi on December 12, 1895, " between the 
passage of to-day and that of 1884 ! Then not a soul 
in that vast region knew even the name of the Lord, not 
one prayed to Him. To-day, let us acknowledge it to 
His glory, ' the Lord hath done great things.' We 
reckon five flourishing stations, and on each of them a 
greater or lesser number of Zambesians who profess to 
have found the Lord." 

And to this must be added a vast kingdom transformed, 
peace and security instead of anarchy and bloodshed ; 
slave-raiding and slave-trading abolished; infanticide, 
torture, trial by ordeal and by witchcraft forbidden, and 
drunkenness at that time never seen ; also, as an indirect 
result, a great territory opened to civilised government 
without the firing of a single shot. 



404 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



It was the fulfilment of Mine. Coillard's words, written 
in 1885, on her husband's first reception at Lealui : — 

' ' Is it not wonderful that F. should have such a cordial 
reception from the Barotsi ? We have no earthly good 
to offer . . . but truly Jesus is the Desired of all the 
nations. They long and hanker after some good which 
they don't possess, and can't even express their wishes ; 
but the Framer of the heart has seen and answered 
their aspirations in sending us to them." 



CHAPTEK XXIII 



FURLOUGH IN EUROPE 
1896-1898 

Publication of Sur le Haut Zambeze — Personal characteristics — The 
S.V.M.U., Mildmay and Keswick— Farewell. 

MCOILLABD'S passage was taken in the ill-fated 
• Drummond Castle, but as there proved not to 
be a berth to spare, it was transferred to another vessel. 
He landed at Southampton on June 11, 1896, and was 
welcomed in France with an extraordinary outburst of 
enthusiasm and affection. At a dinner-party the late 
M. Auguste Sabatier coupled his name with a toast in 
these words : To heroic simplicity ! 

The whole responsibility of raising funds and workers 
for the Zambesi Mission having been thrown upon him 
from the first, he had had to be both General and war 
correspondent. This had kept him in constant com- 
munication with an immense circle of private friends, 
while his letters in the Journal des Missions during the 
previous twelve years had made him known far beyond 
missionary or even Protestant circles. All this paved 
the way for his book, Sur le Haut Zambeze, which 
appeared the following year in an edition de luxe, illus- 
trated by plates from his own photographs. It had a 
great success. Of its purely literary merits, the Figaro 
said at the time of his death: " M. Coillard etait un 
ecrivain de race. Son livre, Sur le Haut Zambeze 

405 



406 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



est deja classique." An English version was issued with 
the title, On the Threshold of Central Africa, which ran 
into a second edition. 

He was not indifferent to this reception : it was 
delightful to him to be loved instead of being lionised 
only, as on his previous furlough. But a private record 
reveals what he felt about it all. 

1896. 

" I think I might have been intoxicated by all the 
adulation lavished on me, had not God in His mercy 
given me such a revelation of my own heart as humbles 
me to the dust, and renders me perfectly indifferent to 
anything that can be said of me." (And again.) " 0 
God, let not this be my reward — [the praise of men] ." 

F. C. to a Eelative : — 

"February 15, 1897. 
" Yesterday in the evening, lecture at the theatre ; the 
place crammed, and hundreds could not get tickets even, 
although a counter conference had been organised for 
a member of the Institut de France. It is sad to 
see the fear people have of anything approaching 
religious matters outside religious buildings and times. 
'Lecture by M. Coillard, missionary.' That very name 
seemed obnoxious, and they wanted to put ' explorer ' 
and what not. And every one took care to put me on my 
guard. 'Above all, no religion.' And just going in, the 
daughter of the organiser (un gros bonnet, ce Monsieur) 
came again, ' And above all, Monsieur, no religion, 
you know.' ' What do you mean, Mademoiselle ; do you 
expect me to put my flag in my pocket ? ' I was deter- 
mined to protest, and so after proceeding by contrasts, 
I ended by that ideal view of the negro who looks from 
afar off, making myself the interpreter of his feelings and 
his fears as he sees the immigration [of the white man] 



1896] HUMAN SYMPATHIES 407 



rising like a flood, finding nothing at the hands of man, 
I sent him John iii. 16 as a message, in his own language 
first, which I translated into French afterwards. It 
was so good to be saying it to that crowd hanging on 
my lips — \ God so loved the world ' — and thus to close 
with the words of the Gospel." 

Another time, when he was visiting some friends, his 
hostess came to the supper-table excusing herself for 
being late. " I was putting my little boy to bed, and 
he kept me. When he was saying his prayers I bade him 
pray for M. Coillard, and he asked, ' Why does every 
one make such a fuss (tant de cas) over M. Coillard?' 
So I began to tell him why, and he said — what do you 
suppose ? ' I think we must all ask God not to let him 
grow too proud ! ' " Everybody laughed except the sub- 
ject of this remark, who looked very grave. The next 
day, in private, the hope was expressed that he had not 
been annoyed by such an embarrassing speech. " Oh 
no," he replied, " it was God's message to me, and He 
sent it by the mouth of a child so that it should not 
wound me." 

Children adored him, not only those old enough to 
be charmed by his stories, but even babies would some- 
times cry to be taken by him from their own mothers, 
and fall quietly asleep in his arms. It was a sort of 
fascination. Every one, indeed, seemed to feel more 
or less the spell of his personality. He did not believe 
that God's glory was served by ignoring and soaring 
above human sympathies and relationships, but rather 
by deepening and multiplying them. Moreover, he 
possessed the power of giving to the many that close 
and intimate affection which most of us can only give 
to the few. At the same time he was never in any 
danger of incurring the curse pronounced on those of 



408 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



whom all men speak well. Though he had loyal col- 
leagues and friends, he also had severe critics, who some- 
times misjudged and misrepresented him. In some ways 
he himself did not understand everybody. His un- 
familiarity with present developments of thought and 
activity accounted for this. But if he could not under- 
stand everybody, he could love them notwithstanding ; 
and many of his friends, like the late Auguste Sabatier, 
were men from whom he differed widely. One trait of 
his character was that he could see people's faults very 
clearly without caring for them the less ; and could even 
speak of these without alienating the sympathies of his 
hearers. Just as there are some people who can make 
one detest a man by praising him, so there are others 
(and he was one) whose criticism leaves one more than 
ever in charity with its object. He " despaired of no 
man." Sectarian barriers always distressed him. He 
thought that Christians ought to sink minor diffe- 
rences and work together for common ends, not fully 
realising that precisely the point of controversy lay in the 
question of what constituted minor differences. But 
while viewing many points as open questions, on others 
he was uncompromising. He did not believe in Divine 
guidance apart from the written Word. He held to the 
plenary inspiration of the Bible, and felt that private 
judgment could only interpret this aright by the Holy 
Spirit's working in a submissive heart and a con- 
science undefiled. Hence he was distressed by the 
"laicising" of Protestant thought and the surrender to 
destructive criticism of the Scriptures, which were to 
him " a tried word " ; and also by the sort of pious 
anarchy, the penumbra of Tolstoi-ism, advocated in some 
religious circles both in England and on the Continent. 
Though he had so often had to plead the cause of mercy, 
he still believed that the law should be a terror to evil- 



1897] ENGLAND IN AFRICA 



409 



doers. In France he had to combat the extreme 
chauvinism which did not wish to support any missions 
that were not in French territory. In England the 
contrary tendency never ceased to amaze him, namely, 
good people always running down their own country and 
countrymen. "Even if it is true, they should leave such 
denunciations to other countries to utter," he would say. 
To his mind disloyalty was the supreme crime, and he 
said quite seriously that such people (mentioning one 
or two by name) ought to be put in prison. " Oh, we let 
them talk ; it is no use sitting on the safety-valve," said 
an English friend. " You do not know the harm it does 
in South Africa," he replied. When some one in his 
presence observed during a discussion, " England 
has too often sought to conciliate her enemies at 
the expense of her friends," he said, " Ah, that 
is only too true." He referred to three instances : the 
abandonment of Moshesh by the withdrawal of the 
Orange Sovereignty; the abandonment of the loyal 
Basutos in the Gun War ; and of the loyal natives in the 
Transvaal and elsewhere after Majuba Hill. Thus, though 
he frankly preferred English colonial rule to any other 
for the native, he admired it not unreservedly, because 
he thought justice had at times been sacrificed to party 
politics. 

The death of the great Sir George Grey took place 
while he was in London. "He was the best, the 
greatest of them all," he said, as he stood bareheaded 
to watch the funeral procession go by. " Oh, if his 
policy had only been carried out, all the troubles of South 
Africa would have been spared us." Yet (so little are 
great men understood by their own generation) M. Coil- 
lard himself in 1860 had written of this Governor's 
recall, " I hope we may get a better; we could not have 
a worse." In saying this he was, of course, repeating 



410 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



the opinions around him, for he was too young and 
inexperienced to have formed one of his own, and was 
besides fascinated by Sir George Grey's Christian character 
and charm in their personal intercourse. But it was 
then thought his arbitration had been unjust to the 
Basutos; afterwards he was better understood. 

M. Coillard's power of sympathy made him a born 
father confessor. It was not only the poor and lowly 
whose trials he entered into ; he had a wonderful insight 
into the lives of those weighted by the responsibilities 
of wealth and position. In Africa, as in Europe, he 
was overwhelmed with letters from people — frequently 
strangers — pouring out their most private griefs and 
penitences, and asking his advice on all sorts of family 
and business matters, of which often he could not possibly 
judge. "M. Coillard always suggested Jesus Christ to 
me," said one of his South African friends, " sim- 
plicity, transparency, humility, with the courage of the 
Holy Ghost." A young lady, a casual visitor who had 
never seen him before, turned one day as he left 
the room, and said, " He reminds me of the 1 Golden 
Legend,' " quoting : — 

" O beauty of holiness, 
Of self-forgetfulness, of lowliness, 

0 power of meekness, 
"Whose very gentleness and weakness 

Is like the yielding but irresistible air." 

Irresistible indeed he was. "We were just like wax 
in M. Coillard's hands," said some rough transport riders 
to the South African friend above mentioned. "We 
always knew we should have to do what he wanted in 
the end, though he seemed to be giving in all the time." 
There lay behind his gentle, retiring ways a dignity and 
independence which few ever made a mistake about 



1897] HOST AND GUEST 411 



twice. Personally the humblest of men, he never forgot 
Whose minister he was, and that the work of extending 
Christ's kingdom commanded men's homage, not their 
patronage. A well-known English explorer, who knew 
him both in Africa and in England, wrote after his 
death : — 

" I delight in analysing the character of my fellow-man, and am 
afraid — like all those who are far from faultless themselves — am 
sometimes a severe critic, but in M. Coillard I have never seen a 
human fault or weakness — while his singleness of purpose, devotion 
to the high ideals which guided every action, and his charitable 
treatment of the weak or wicked stamped him as a man of exceptional 
virtue. When you add to such traits of character the presence, spirit, 
and manner of an accomplished gentleman, you have what I have 
always felt to be the personality of this best of men." 

He was an ideal guest ; more than one person has 
remarked, " He was like an angel in the house." One 
of his greatest charms as an inmate was his readiness to 
enjoy simple pleasures and to fall in with established 
ways. " Not like some visitors," said one long-suffering 
hostess, " who begin to wind everything round their own 
reel before they have been half an hour in the house." 

He was also in his own home an ideal host ; to his 
colleagues truly a father in God, and full of small, 
affectionate attentions to their wives and children, 
remembering birthdays and anniversaries, and caring 
for them in sickness with a woman's tenderness. " I 
would rather be a burden to you, M. Coillard, than to 
any one else," said one person naively, for whom he had 
turned his house into a hospital. 

Eoughing it so much had rather intensified than other- 
wise his preference for cultivated life. He took great 
pleasure in looking at fine china, fine books, and — truly 
French — fine clocks ! He had also some curious aesthetic 
fancies, which seemed part of himself, e.g., he liked every- 



412 COTLLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



thing blue and pink and dove coloured, disliked red and 
purple, and shuddered at yellow, as some men shudder at 
a cat. 

The record of his life is somewhat stern and sombre, 
but he himself was full of a charming playfulness that 
glanced over every subject presented to him. At the 
Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 some friends invited 
him to join with them in a private meeting for National 
Humiliation, which they had arranged for the same day 
and hour, on the principle which led Job to offer sacrifices 
whilst his sons were feasting. M. Coillard enjoyed 
festivity and also cherished a deep admiration for the 
Queen. If he could have remained in England for it, 
he would certainly have gone to see the procession. 
"Well, I don't say you have no causes for humiliation," 
he said, with a twinkle in his eye, " (je ne dis pas que 
vous n'avez pas de quoi /) but you see I have borne the 
sins of Africa on my heart for forty years ; and those of 
France, my native land, also lie very heavily on my 
conscience. Don't you think it is asking a little too 
much of me to confess the sins of your country too?" 

The year he arrived in England (1896) was a very 
interesting one in the circles most sympathetic to him- 
self. It was that of the famous Student Volunteer 
Conference in Liverpool. Its motto, " The Evangelisa- 
tion of the World in this Generation," appealed strongly 
to him; its report, Make Jesus King, became his vade- 
mecum all through his preaching tours. Immediately 
after his arrival took place the Jubilee gathering of the 
Evangelical Alliance at Mildmay, at which he was 
present. From thence he went to the Keswick Con- 
vention. After his long isolation it gave him unspeakable 
delight to meet with so many fellow-workers from other 
lands, and especially Mr. Hudson Taylor, in whose China 
Inland Mission he had found such inspiration. There 



THE GREETING OE INTIMATE EMENDS, BAROTSILAND, 
UPPER ZAMBESI. 




The Gambella. 

THE BIG WAR-DRUMS, UPPER ZAMBESI. 
Each is hewn out of a solid tree trunk. 

[To face y. 412. 



i897] SEMOINDJFS BAPTISM 413 



was an affinity between them : each had been encouraged 
by the victorious faith of the other. One day, seeing Mr. 
Hudson Taylor (like himself a very small man) struggling 
with a heavy overcoat, he came to the rescue, saying as 
he did so, "I am so glad to have the opportunity of 
helping you, just for once." " Dear brother," was the 
reply, "you have been helping me all your life! " 

In Liverpool he enjoyed an interview with the aged 
Bishop, Dr. Eyle, whose tract, Wheat or Chaff, had 
led to his own conversion. " He prayed fervently and 
repeated several times, ' It is so good to think we are 
going where there are no more partings.' " 

In Paris he had the happiness of baptizing Semoindji 
Stephen, a Christian boy whom he had brought from the 
Zambesi, in the presence of a large assemblage of friends 
and helpers who heard his confession of faith, and to 
whom it was the proof of his ministry. 

Once when they were visiting the Guinness family at 
Cliff College, who had treated this boy very kindly, the 
latter came to his master's room one night after every 
one had gone to bed. He was sobbing violently, and it 
was long before he could control himself to speak. At 
last he said, " Oh, I never understood before what you 
gave up when you came to bring us the thuto (Gospel) . 
I did not know your home was so different. With us, 
you know how it is, when we meet strangers we fly from 
each other, and each man seeks his weapon. When we 
go from village to village we meet only enemies who hate 
us. Here, you go from one home to another : all are 
friends, all is love and confidence and welcome. I know 
now what it must have cost you to leave it all for us." 

It would be impossible to speak in detail of this 
campaign of two and a half years among the French- 
speaking Protestants of the Continent. His meetings 
produced a powerful effect, the more surprising since 



414 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



as a speaker he was very unequal. This was natural 
seeing that he had often to speak when he was physically 
unfit for it. One Sunday he had to give no fewer than 
seven addresses ! At times he was admirable, at others 
conscious of failure. However, these oratorical failures 
sometimes yielded the best practical results. He never 
pleaded for the Barotsiland Mission alone, but used the 
Great Commission as a stimulus to a revival in Christian 
life. After his campaign among the Swiss churches, 
where much had been given for the Zambesi work, the 
contributions to their own missions (Mission Komande) 
were larger than they had ever been before, and this was 
attributed entirely to the stimulus of his influence. If 
we could look into the secret history of many congrega- 
tions, it would probably be found that his visits had had 
not a little to do with the recent quickening of spiritual 
life among those of France, which has prepared them for 
the sacrifices involved in the separation of Church and 
State. Thanks largely to him, the annual income of the 
Paris Mission rose from £13,200 in 1891 to £49,000 in 
1902-3. 

His addresses were carefully thought out. Some 
people have one lecture which they repeat everywhere. 
This he would never do. He could not speak to half a 
dozen schoolgirls (unless taken by surprise) without 
devoting an hour or two to preparing his address, or 
rather preparing himself to deliver it. "I can't feed 
people on stale bread," he would say, when urged to 
leave it for some social engagement ; and once he wrote, 
" I have not dealt in missionary pastry only, but in the 
Bread of Life." This was true. His addresses, as heard, 
seemed only remarkable for a certain primordial fresh- 
ness and simplicity springing from the fact that as a man 
he had lived close to earth, and as a Christian close to 
heaven. Yet no one who heard him speak ever seemed 



1897] THE VICTORIOUS LIFE 415 



able to forget it. A series of notes for such addresses 
reveals the secret of their power. Every one was in 
reality a Bible study, a sequence of Scripture passages 
setting forth the work and claims of Christ, forming the 
backbone, so skilfully clothed with interesting details of 
African life that those who listened did not realise the 
Word of God was finding its way into their hearts and 
minds, and that the "missionary talk" had conveyed a 
whole Divine argument. Old and young, as well as 
many pastors, were grateful for his ministry. 

It will have been noted that every great spiritual 
revelation in his life was followed by a great test, to 
which he responded. The same thing happened now. 
It was at Keswick that he received a blessing. The 
teaching of Mildmay on Consecration twenty-two years 
before had put the whole question of service on an 
entirely new plane for him, and imparted a new joy. He 
learnt then the deep truth of the figure, " When the burnt 
offering began, the Song of the Lord began also." Still 
the subject of sanctification which from boyhood had 
occupied his mind had never been clear to him. The 
doctrine of " sinless perfection," and the total eradication 
of the evil nature, whether sudden or gradual, he never 
could see in Scripture. To the end of his life he was 
beset by the sense of failure and temptation. But now 
he understood the principle of what he had long ex- 
perienced in practice : " The law of the Spirit of Life in 
Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death, . . . that the righteousness of the law might be 
fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the 
Spirit " ; and thus he learnt to count upon victory over 
the inward foe just as confidently as on that over outward 
circumstances. As regarded his work, though he was 
always depressed about the present, because his ideals 
were so exalted, he was ever confident about the future. 



416 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

But as regarded his own spiritual progress, he was intro- 
spective and despondent by nature, and it was happiness 
when he could say, " Thanks be to God which causeth us 
always to triumph in Christ." Few have realised to the 
same extent as he how entirely this life of victory depends 
upon obedience and communion with God. He once 
said to a friend: " I have always desired three things, 
and now more than ever. I desire all equally : I do not 
name them in order of importance : — 
"To know him — His own Person; 
To be a man who can dig deep into the Word of 
God ; 

To be a man of prayer; to know how to pray and 
to prevail with God." 
Aspiration alone did not satisfy him. He neglected no 
practice or discipline that could help him to attain these 
ends. He rose early at three or four or five o'clock every 
morning (unless ill) in order to secure time undisturbed. 
He usually studied the Bible in French, in two English 
versions (the A.V. and E.V.), and the New Testament in 
Greek. Besides this, he always had some commentary 
at hand, and also some simple Manual of the inner life. 
Latterly the books of Dr. Andrew Murray and Dr. 
Torrey's How to Pray were always lying on his 
table. Increasingly towards the end of his life, the 
subject of prayer occupied his mind, and was dwelt upon 
in his letters, as, e.g. : — 

" George Muller's life teaches me many things about 
prayer. We are apt to separate faith from holiness, as 
if we erected our own will like an idol and called it faith 
because we ardently wish what we ask. The ardent 
desire must be there, but the abiding in Jesus too, and 
the doing of His Commandments." 



1897] CHRISTMAS DAY 417 



His one object was to arouse both the Church and the 
world to the claims of Christ the King and Saviour. The 
sight and even the thought of a heart where Jesus did 
not reign so grieved him as to cause almost physical 
suffering, e.g. : — 

Jouknal F. C. : — 

"Bonskeid, December 24, 1897. 
" The remembrance of our happy stay here in 1881 and 
that beautiful Christmas Day makes me sad. ' Merry 
Christmas ! ' and my Saviour is unknown, despised, 
outraged, crowned with thorns, by this world He came 
to save. Merry; and the heathen world perishes in 
darkness. 0 my God, awaken Thy people ! " 

He knew the appeal must be to sacrifice : to give what 
could be spared would never meet the world's needs. He 
knew, too, by his own experience that self-denial, the 
duty of the rich, is the luxury of the poor : he was not 
afraid to appeal to both, and both responded, but 
principally the latter. He could not receive the fruits 
of so many sacrifices without sharing them ; and here 
came the test above spoken of. He wanted to take out 
fifteen workers to the Zambesi. As on a former occasion, 
some great gift was needed to set the example, but it was 
not forthcoming. Then it was revealed to him that he 
must himself be the giver. From sources unconnected 
with the Mission, he had recently acquired a small 
capital (laid by for his approaching retirement), on the 
income of which (about £40) he thought he could live, 
instead of taking a pension from the Society, while the 
principal would pass to it at his death. Now, however, 
that his recovered health enabled him to return to Africa, 
he felt he must give it at once. Not a soul knew of his 
decision, not even his nearest relatives. He withdrew 

28 



418 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



his whole banking account to the last halfpenny. The 
director to whom the anonymous donation was handed 
guessed, and put the question to him. He acknowledged 
it in return for a pledge of secrecy, which was kept till 
after his death. It was entered in the published lists as, 
" All I possess, ... to send workers to the Zambesi." 
The present writer, little dreaming what he had had to 
do with it, asked him what he thought of such a gift. 
All he would say was, " The widow cast in all the living 
that she had, and Jesus commended it." 

The example thus given proved stimulating. One lady 
sold her pearls, also anonymously ; others brought large 
contributions, and at last sufficient funds came in to send 
the fifteen workers so much desired. However, it was 
more difficult to find them than to find the money. 
By the annexation of Madagascar to France, the Paris 
Society had been forced to take over all the schools 
and most of the churches of the London Missionary 
Society's immense work there, and needed all the 
available recruits for that purpose. 

The very first Sunday M. Coillard preached in Paris, 
a young man passing the door and seeing the notice, 
strolled in to listen. Next morning he offered himself 
for the Barotsi Mission. He belonged to a leading 
Protestant family, and had just completed a brilliant 
University career. Here, without further training and 
ready to start at once, was the very man required to 
direct the schools of Madagascar. But it was for the 
Zambesi Mr. Mondain had offered — would M. Coillard 
give him up? " Yes, he would." Only the pioneers 
of a great enterprise can appreciate this act of abnega- 
tion. However, it had the best of effects, proving to the 
advocates of Colonial Missions who had hitherto frowned 
on the Barotsi Mission and its founder that (as the 
young man said at his ordination), "all missions are in 



1898] FAREWELL MEETING 419 



reality one, and are a support to each other, and that to 
weaken one is to weaken and diminish all the others." 

Two days before sailing for the Zambesi (December 
8, 1898), M. Coillard addressed a farewell meeting in 
Exeter Hall, presided over by the Kev. E. W. Moore, 
of Emanuel Church, Wimbledon. It was a small one, for 
he was very little known in England ; but the address he 
gave, speaking in English, was from every point of view 
one of the finest he ever uttered. According to his wish, 
no collection was made and no appeal for funds. It was 
an occasion for thanksgiving only, to announce that 
the fifteen workers had been found and also the money. 

By a striking and wholly unexpected coincidence, 
when he rose to his feet, there sat just in front of him 
the Kev. Roger Price, the sole survivor of the Helmore 
expedition in 1859. They had never met since their stay 
at Dr. Moffat's in 1868 (see p. 179), little dreaming 
then that the work Mr. Price had attempted, it would 
be his to perform. Very few present knew anything 
of this history, but his opening words acquainted them 
with it : — 

" When I left my native land a little more than forty- 
one years ago, one word was a source of strength and 
comfort : ' He that shall leave father, mother, brothers, 
and sisters [for My sake and the Gospel's] shall find 
in this world a hundredfold of them.' 

" I see in this meeting and in all the words that have 
been spoken now the fulfilment of the promise of our 
Blessed Lord ; and I say, 1 How great is the family of 
God, and how rich is the man who finds all his relations 
multiplied to such a degree.' 

"A friend told me one day, 'You [missionaries] are 
the foot of the Church, and wherever you go the Church 
goes with you.' ' Oh,' I said, ' that is beautiful ! The 



420 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 

feet of the Church, that is the lowest part of the body, 
that treads in the mud very often, and in the dust, 
and if the feet of the Messengers of Peace are so very 
beautiful in the sight of God and of the angels, what 
must be the body? and if the body is so beautiful 
and so glorious, what must be the Head?' 

"Oh, dear friends, let us place Him there in the midst ; 
of Him and through Him and for Him are all things ! 

"... A great deal has been spoken about my name 
here, and I am sorry that so much should have been 
said. . . . We have a custom in South Africa among 
the blacks — when a man kills a bird, he never eats 
it himself, but he lays it at the feet of his senior ; 
and if I had killed a bird to-night, I think it would 
be my duty to lay it at the feet of my dear brother 
who is here now and whom I have not seen for more 
than thirty years, the Rev. Koger Price, of the London 
Missionary Society — the true pioneer of the Barotsi 
Mission." 



CHAPTEE XXIV 



EETUEN TO AFRICA 



1898-1904 



Basutoland revisited — Wonderful progress — Baptism of Litia — The 
last seven years — Accumulated trials — Death of many colleagues 
— Lewanika's visit to the Coronation — The Ethiopian treachery 
— Threatened blindness — Visit to the Cape and tour, 1903 — The 
Drostdy Mission College — Return to the Zambesi — " All forsook 
me " — A last crisis — The end — Pioneer days over — Memorial 
service in Paris. 

IV IT COILLAKD sailed for South Africa on December 



JLV_1_ • 10, 1898, with his friend Captain Bertrand, of 
Geneva, a connection of Caesar Malan's family and a 
cousin of the late Major Malan, who had visited the 
Zambesi Mission in 1895 in company with Major St. 
Hill Gibbons and Mr. Percy Eeid, and had ever since 
been its devoted champion. Before returning to the 
Barotsi, they made a tour through M. Coillard's old 
mission-field of Basutoland, to which he had bidden 
farewell in 1884, leaving the work of his youth, as it 
seemed, in ruins. Now it had risen from its ashes to a 
stronger and deeper life than ever before. It was summer- 
time, and they went from station to station, thousands 
assembling in the open air to listen to the preaching, 
while hundreds of baptized Christians flocked to the 

421 




422 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Communion. It was to him a Divine recompense for 
the griefs and disappointments of the past, and a bright 
encouragement for the future of the Barotsi Mission. 
The ten days spent at his own old station of Leribe were 
the crown of all. 

Jouenal F. C. : — 

"Lekibe, Sunday, February 12, 1899. 

" A great day. From early morning group after group 
arrived from all sides — all the chiefs of the country, 
except Joel. The assembly met under my trees before 
the church, the same place where I had bidden them 
farewell fifteen years before. I spoke to them on my 
favourite theme, the Koyalty of Jesus. But Jonathan 
must needs speak first, overwhelming me with all sorts 
of praises, recalling what I had done for him personally 
and for the nation — a speech which seemed to be much 
appreciated. And when I had finished he again spoke, in 
order to reply with evident conviction to my question, 
' What is it that has saved this nation amid the break-up 
of all the surrounding tribes ? ' 

" He replied that ' it was not our exploits in arms, but 
the Gospel.' And he backed up his demonstration with 
peremptory arguments. At table he was still full of the 
subject, and he continued amid all the other chiefs to 
develop it. One of the most impressive sights I ever had 
in my life was the last one we had to commemorate our 
Lord's death. Like the Sunday before, heathens, chiefs 
and all, had flocked to meetings, and resolved to stay 
to the last. But the church, which contains from six 
hundred to seven hundred people, was full to overflowing 
with communicants only, and all the others, inquirers, 
candidates for baptism, as well as heathen, had to gather 
outside under the trees. I was overwhelmed with emotion 
and joy in being permitted to see how wonderfully the 



1899] THE JOY OF HARVEST 423 



Lord's work had prospered — so that I could hear the 
songs of gladness of the reapers where we had sown with 
so many tears in days gone by. But these remarks apply 
to the work in Basutoland generally — I have been struck 
with the wonderful progress made not only in the spread 
of the Gospel and in civilised ways, but in the deepening 
of spiritual life among our native Christians. 

"February 24, 1899. 
"Farewells are always sad, but what a difference 
between this farewell and that of 1884 ! Then our flock, 
ravaged by the Disarmament War, watched our departure 
with mingled grief and bitterness, thinking we were 
forsaking them. To-day, the work (under first the 
Weitzeckers and now the Dieterlens) has developed in 
all directions, as witness our last meeting, to me the best 
of them all, where I saw my own church filled with 
hundreds of communicants, so that there was not even 
room for the catechumens. In this amazing extension 
of the work the Christians of Leribe most certainly see 
the seal of God placed upon the call we felt we had 
received to the Zambesi." 

In 1884 the Church in Basutoland was impoverished, 
materially and spiritually, yet it sent of its best — money, 
native preachers, and four white missionaries to the 
Zambesi. Certainly, in these twenty years since, the 
sacrifice has been made good to the givers. 

F. C. (a private letter, English): — 

" Wankies, April 30, 1899. 
" Hitherto in the midst of the noise made the Lord 
has given me such an insight of my own unworthiness and 
deficiency that He cast me in the dust. And the praise 
of men, in holding before me such a grand ideal which I 



424 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



might have reached, showed me most painfully how far 
I was from it. ... Of course, cork will always float on 
the water, do what one will. Men have not got the 
balance of the sanctuary : it is in the hands of God ; and 
alas for the man who is found wanting. His only 
resource then is to cast himself on Christ, and from Him 
receive grace for grace. At present I am absorbed in 
this expedition I am leading. I am not a leader of men ; 
I have none of the qualities required for it, and that again 
casts me very low before the throne of grace. When I 
look back upon those three years of labours in Europe, 

1 wonder that God should have used such a tool, and in 
some circumstances used it with blessing. Humbling 
failings crowd in my remembrance, and my wounded 
pride would have them blotted out. The Lord used 
them, however, for my training; a soldier learns in 
defeat, and makes it a step to victory. Now when I 
have brought this phalanx to the battlefield and seen 
every one at his post of honour, then it seems my work 
will be done, and I don't quite see how best I can serve 
the Mission. The Lord shall surely show me." 

The "fifteen" new workers had started a few months 
later to rejoin him by rail at Bulawayo — wonderful 
Bulawayo ! — where he saw the transformations effected 
by the Matabele War, and lunched at Government House 
on the identical spot where Lobengula had held him a 
captive at his kraal. 

They reached the banks of the Zambesi on May 18th. 
His sermon on the first Sunday was from the text in 

2 Cor. xii. 14:— 

" This is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not 
be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours but you . . . and I will 
very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly 
I love you, the less I be loved," 



1899] LITIA'S BAPTISM 425 



It was not only true at the moment, but prophetic of the 
future. Every one was confidently hoping for a bright and 
peaceful evening after such a stormy life ; but it was not 
to be. His last seven years in Africa were beyond all 
question the saddest and most troubled of his life. These 
sorrows are too recent and too personal to be spoken of in 
detail. St. Paul could sum up in six lines his "perils by 
waters, and perils by the heathen," but "the care of all 
the Churches " fills half the New Testament. It is when 
there are some Christians to be shepherded that the real 
trials of a mission begin. 

So large a caravan had never passed through Rhodesia 
to the Zambesi, for, till the final overthrow of the Mata- 
bele and the extension of the railway to Bulawayo, the 
route had always been further west from Palapye 
(Bechuanaland) to Kazungula. Hence the path was 
little better than a track ; it was this passage that made 
it into a road. The African proverb says, "Where the 
waggon- wheel has passed, the grass never grows again." 
Unfortunately this is only metaphorically true. It was 
easy to lose the way. The journey was long, and from 
time to time they were detained in swampy places where 
the germs of fever were contracted. On reaching the 
Zambesi they were met by the news of Mme. Louis Jalla's 
death, and a few days later the youngest of the party, 
Mme. Bouchet, also passed away. The last words on her 
lips were, " Avec joie." It was under the shadow of this 
sorrow that a meeting was held, the most important for 
the Mission that had ever taken place, namely, the 
baptism of Litia, the king's son, who also presented his 
infant son and heir for baptism. One of the young 
arrivals, M. Lienard, while contrasting the simple 
Protestant ceremony with the gorgeous rites that accom- 
panied the baptism of King Clovis at Rheiros, dwelt on 
the historic importance of the occasion. The parallel, 



426 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



alas ! proved closer than he guessed, and the Christianity 
of Litia, sincere as it then seemed, was exactly on a level 
with that of the Merovingian kings of France — a form of 
godliness without the power thereof. 

As already related, a few months earlier Lewanika had 
appointed Mokamba, a Christian, to the office of Gam- 
bella, or Prime Minister. He had also received Mr. 
Coryndon, the representative of the British South Africa 
Company — his country being styled North-West Ehodesia 
— and he had signed a new treaty with which the mission- 
aries had nothing to do. So that, while the king's mind 
was at rest, their position was now quite free from 
political clouds and complications — to M. Coillard a 
source of unspeakable relief. It seemed that henceforth, 
instead of " serving tables," the missionaries had nothing 
more to do but preach and teach the "Word of God, and 
reap where they had sown. After a warm welcome from 
the king they were appointed to their several stations, 
and all promised well. Nothing but trouble followed. 

A period of bad seasons had set in. At the Zambesi 
they seem to recur in cycles of about five years. Already 
M. Goy and Mme. Louis Jalla had been carried off, and 
out of the twenty-four young people who had gone thither 
since 1897, eight died and eleven were sent home either 
invalided or widowed. Only five of this band are still on 
the field, though new recruits have replaced the others. 

M. Coillard was overwhelmed with sorrow, especially at 
the death of M. Lienard, a Frenchman by birth, and one 
of the most brilliant students who ever graduated from 
Montauban University. The artisans and the technical 
expert, M. Georges Mercier, whom they had counted on 
for building, and for the Industrial School he longed so 
much to put on a proper footing, were among the first to 
succumb — two died, others had to leave invalided. He 
wrote : " I feel like an old tree, dry and isolated, whom 



1900] 



A DEATH-WAVE 



427 



the axe has forgotten in the midst of a clearing. Oh, 
why does not God spare the young? " 

It was the more perplexing as during the previous 
thirteen years there had been only two European deaths 
in the Mission besides children (Mme. Coillard and Dr. 
Dardier), and neither was strictly due to climate, although 
the conditions in which the pioneers had lived were far 
more difficult and deadly. 

A fierce storm of criticism arose ; people at home could 
not realise that there are moments in missions, as in war 
and in other human undertakings, when not merely the 
interest but the capital of human life must be sunk if 
need be. 

" Better give it up," was said openly by many. M. 
Coillard was indignant at the idea. 

"Have you not in Europe men remarkable for the 
ardour of their youth, the wealth of their talents and 
activities, who succumb? Careers full of promise and 
hope broken at the start ? Men who seem to us indis- 
pensable, and whom God takes away in the zenith of a 
blessed service? What names, what facts pass before 
my mind and crowd under my pen ! Show me the map 
of the world, and on it the corner — a single one — which 
the love of God does not cover and for which Jesus Christ 
did not die ! If you cannot, then do not bid us hand over 
to others — because people die there — a mission which 
God has so clearly and peremptorily pointed out to us. 
The extraordinary death-wave, which is devastating 
without as well as within our circle, will pass ; and how 
we should [one day] regret the reluctance and unfaithful- 
ness which would have delayed the hour of victory ! " 

Others came to fill the empty places, but for several 
years the work did little more than maintain itself 



428 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



in the intervals of sickness. However, all this trouble 
had one good result. People at home began to realise 
that the missionary is not sent out to be, as M. Coillard 
once said, une machine a sacrifices, but to be efficient, 
and that a cheap mission in a tropical climate could not 
be an efficient one. The result was the starting of the 
Building Fund, which has already provided several 
hygienic houses for the Zambesi, and whose promoters 
will not rest until all the stations have them of one kind 
or another suited to their position. Since the researches 
of Major Ross, the idea of preventing malaria by mosquito- 
proof dwellings has become so familiar it is difficult to 
realise that the first mosquito-proof house at the Upper 
Zambesi was erected by Dr. Reutter, the Mission doctor, 
in 1902, at Sesheke. It has been a complete success in 
shielding its inmates from fever. 

F. C. (private letter, English) : — 

" Lealui, January 6, 1900. 
" At my suggestion [the king] invited us to a great 
dinner. I am sure it would have interested you to be 
there. The king's dining and reception hall is very 
spacious. He has a splendid telescope table where we 
sat, twenty in all, including the ladies, and the king him- 
self, who sat at the head, and presided with more calm 
and dignity than I credited him for. I could not, how- 
ever, obtain from him that his sister, the queen of 
Nalolo, who is here on a visit, should sit with us. He 
would have had her sitting on a mat and eating by her- 
self, but not at the same table with himself ! That meal 
I could not help comparing with the first dinner, where I 
found myself a rather cumbersome guest. The king, 
squatting on a mat, was tearing a duck with his teeth, 
and when he had satisfied himself passed me the rest, 



1901] REACHING THE SLAVES 429 



remarking that I must be hungry. Of course to look at 
him had quite satisfied me. 

11 May 26, 1900. 
" Of course I gave him some messages [from Europe] 
about his conversion. ' But,' said he, ' I like the things 
of God — it pleases me to see people becoming Christians, 
even my children and my wives. It is only my person 
that is not there because I have never made a profession.' 
... As for me, I shall weep over the man and pray as 
Samuel over Saul, until the Lord tells me ' It is enough.' 

Letter to a Relative : — 

" Sunday evening, March 17, 1901. 
" The Queen's death was a very sad and unexpected 
blow. What a mourning there has been ! I preached 
on 2 Chron. xxxi. 20, 21, with Psa. ii. 10. I gave on the 
life of the beloved Queen such details as would interest 
the people and do good." 

" Hezekiah . . . wrought that which was good arid right and truth 
before the Lord his God, and in every work that he began in the 
service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments 
to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered " (2 Chron. 
xxxi. 20). 

" Be wise now therefore, O ye kings ; and be instructed, ye judges 
of the earth " (Psa. ii. 10). 

In early days, while the missionaries were so few in 
number, the difficulty of reaching any but the ruling 
tribe had not troubled them greatly, because that in itself 
gave them more to do than they could overtake. But 
how to evangelise the masses of the people now became 
a pressing question. 

F. COILLAKD TO THE EEV. F. PAYNTER I — 

(Apparently 1902, but undated.) 
" The great, great difficulty for me is how to reach the 



430 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



poor, the slaves of slaves, who cannot believe that if the 
Gospel brings some blessing it is for them as well as for 
their masters. One yesterday who came to me for 
medical help said, ' We have no time to serve God as you 
say; all our time and strength is " eaten up" by our 
masters; the Gospel is not for us, the poor and the slave.' 
And when I showed him how that God had sent His 
Gospel to be preached to the poor, he stared at me and 
said, ' You love the poor, then ? ' I do indeed, and I 
never understood as I do now, in the evening of my life, 
the depth there is in those words, 4 When Jesus saw the 
multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them.' " 

In this same year (1902) took place Lewanika's 
memorable visit to England to be present at King 
Edward's Coronation. " Shall you not feel embarrassed 
at your first interview ? " asked M. Coillard. " Oh no," 
was the reply ; " when we kings get together we always 
find plenty to talk about." It was a curious sensation 
for M. Coillard's young relatives to see the ogre of their 
childhood seated at their own table in the garb and with 
the manners of a finished gentleman. In personal inter- 
course Lewanika inspired both affection and regard, 
and always behaved with consummate dignity both in 
public and in private. The Barotsi were delirious with 
excitement when he returned ; they had been uncertain 
whether he had not been spirited away for ever. He 
arrived at the capital on January 1, 1903. M. Coillard 
had assembled all the children from the five schools of 
the Upper Zambesi (about five hundred) to make a 
demonstration in his honour, which pleased him very 
much. The Gambella (Prime Minister) summed up his 
impressions of England in these words: " The great ones 
honoured us ; the believers showed us affection ; but the 
people of the world despised us because our skins were 



1903] LEWANIKA'S RETURN 431 



black." The following Sunday, after the sermon, the 
king rose, came to the platform and spoke : — 

" I have two words : the first is, Praise God and bless Him. In 
spite of all your fears, I have come back among you all, full of life 
and health. No doubt it is thanks to Colonel Harding, who accom- 
panied me, and to your old missionary, whose letters prepared my 
way, but it is God, and God alone, whom we must praise. Let us 
talk no more about our ancestors, they are no gods. 

" My second word is this : The Gospel (thuto) is everything . I 
have seen many things, and many wonderful things, but I have also 
seen one thing which I cannot keep silent about. It is that every- 
where it is the Word of God which guides kings and their councils. 
In Parliament it is the Gospel which makes the laws ; in Society it is 
the Gospel which inspires a benevolence we have never even imagined. 
It is the Gospel which makes people intelligent through their schools, 
and which gives them security and happiness. The missionaries told 
me all this, but now I have seen it. Barotsi, let us come out of our 
darkness, our ancient heathenism 1 Come and hear the teachings of 
our missionaries — come on Sunday. Send your children to school, 
that we too may become a nation." 

These were cheering words. It seemed that only one 
step more was needed for the king to declare himself a 
Christian, and all his people expected it. But no ; he 
drew back. Soon after this declaration that their 
ancestral gods were no gods, he went and venerated their 
shrines, though not, he carefully explained, to offer sacri- 
fices there — a custom which for some time he had given 
up. Still it was regarded by the people as an act of 
homage to their national deities, and many were thereby 
turned back who were ready to declare themselves Chris- 
tians if only their king would have given them a lead, but 
who without this had not the courage of their convictions. 

Which of the two was the act of sincerity ? which the 
act of hypocrisy — to confess the new faith he had really 
come to believe in, or to pay devotions to gods whose 
very existence he had just denied ? " The heart of kings 
is unsearchable." 



432 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



It soon became evident that the light in which he 
chiefly appreciated the thuto (Gospel ; by which word is 
meant the moral teaching of the Scriptures) was as an 
agent for the material advancement of his people. And 
this made it all the easier for him to fall into the snare of 
the Ethiopian movement which darkened M. Coillard's 
last days. 

In April, 1903, increasing trouble with his eyes obliged 
him (in view of an operation for cataract) to visit the 
Cape. Expert examination, however, proved that surgery 
would be useless, as the threatened blindness was caused 
by the dust and glare of the tropics and the effects of 
fever and advancing years. A visit to Basutoland was 
planned to recruit his health, and he spent some weeks 
there which he much enjoyed. At Berea he baptized 
sixty converts. When visiting his old station of Leribe 
his young hostess, Mme. Lorriaux, said one morning at 
breakfast, " M. Coillard, you must eat some of these, you 
know. They are your own quinces which you planted in 
1877, and which you said in your book you had never 
tasted." It was quite true, for though he had returned 
from time to time, it was never at the right season to find 
them ripe ! It was not the only long-deferred fruit he 
enjoyed. He had a most touching interview with his 
beloved friend, Nathanael Makotoko, now helpless and 
paralysed, but quite clear in his head. No one who heard 
it could forget the dear old Mosuto's prayer when for the 
last time they took the Lord's Supper together. Another 
happy visit was to Joas, the boy he had taken with him 
to Natal in 1867, now a grey-headed evangelist, whose 
own son (named Francis Coillard) was preparing in his 
turn to be a teacher to his own people. 

In the course of this last journey he made acquaint- 
ance with two books, both of which seemed to impress 
and delight him. One was Mrs. Josephine Butler's 



1903] DUTCH MISSIONS 



433 



Catherine of Siena. He several times referred to this 
in his latest letters, saying he wished he might be like 
St. Catherine whose prayer it was " always to see the 
beauty of every human soul." 

The other was the Silex Scintillans, of Henry 
Vaughan. A certain like-mindness enabled him to 
appreciate this poet in spite of the obscurities which it 
might be thought only an English reader could overcome. 
One poem in particular he asked so often to have read 
to him that it may be taken as expressing his last and 
deepest desires. 

" King of Mercy, King of Love, 
In whom I live, in whom I move, 
Perfect what Thou hast begun, 
Let no night put out this sun. 
Grant I may, my chief desire, 
Long for thee, to thee aspire. 

>:< * * * 

Oh, it is Thy only Art, 

To reduce a stubborn heart ; 

And since Thine is victorie 

Strongholds should belong to Thee: 

Lord, then take it, leave it not 

Unto my dispose or lot; 

But since I would not have it mine 

0 my God, let it be Thine ! " 

He was worn out in mind and body. Invitations to 
visit friends and speak on behalf of the Mission prevented 
him from taking a real rest, but the affectionate welcome 
of South African friends, old and new, cheered him 
greatly. Amid it all, nothing gave him such joy as his 
stay at "Worcester, Cape Colony, where he was enter- 
tained by the Dutch minister, the Kev. A. de Villiers, and 
visited the new mission house, the Drostdy, where over a 
hundred young Dutchmen who had devoted themselves 

29 



434 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



to the evangelisation of the natives were being trained 
under the direction of Mr. Louw and others. Many of 
these young men, the sons of Free Staters from the 
borders of Basutoland, could speak Sesuto fluently, and 
two of them, MM. Kliengbiel and Brummer, accom- 
panied him as lay helpers to Barotsiland, where they 
remained for three years and rendered most valuable 
help. 

In Johannesburg, that city of youth, people turned 
round in the street to gaze after the old man with his 
white beard and white soft hat, a weather-beaten blue cloak 
thrown over his shoulders. There he visited the Basutos 
and Barotsi in the mining compound, and gave evidence 
before the Commission of Native Labour which was then 
sitting, and in a private interview to the High Commis- 
sioner, Lord Milner. In Bulawayo he enjoyed meeting 
once more his old friend the Bev. J. S. Moffat. They 
had a long and deeply interesting conversation on the new 
aspect of the native question, saddening in some respects. 
They both had to recognise that with the immense 
growth of mining and industrial life in South Africa and 
the flooding of the country by a white working-man 
population, fresh problems had arisen, even more difficult 
of solution than the old ones. Chief among these were 
first the crowding together of natives in compounds and 
locations, away from domestic ties and tribal restraints ; 
and secondly the determined opposition of the English 
artisan class to the training of the native in skilled labour 
that might compete with theirs. Both were distressed 
by the growth of a feeling against the uplifting of the 
native among the English colonists, remembering the 
time, not so long before, when the English posed, and 
not without reason, as the protectors of the natives. 
They agreed as to the extreme danger (to put it on no 
higher ground) of neglecting the black man's higher 



1903] THE NATIVE QUESTION 435 



interests, moral, mental, and manual, and repressing his 
legitimate aspirations. 

Such were not the views of an English working man, 
in the train between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls in 
1903. " It's absurd the way the Khodesian Government 
pampers the natives : the hut-tax only £1 a year ; I'd 
make it £4. Then look at them in N.W. Ehodesia 
(Barotsiland), all for peace and keeping the natives quiet. 
What they want is a licking, and I only hope I shall 
be there when they get it. I fought all through the 
Matabele War." 

" The Barotsi are quite unlike the Matabele," replied 
M. Coillard. " There is no possible reason for fighting 
them now." 

" We'd find one easy enough. Talk about Missions ! 
. . . I'm a member of the Congregational Church at 
Bulawayo. I'm very keen about it. I believe in belonging 
to a Church myself — always did. I've a brother who's 
always asking me about the missions in N.W. Ehodesia. 
I tell him we convert the natives with the sjambok (whip) 
— teach them the Gospel of Labour — that's what they 
want ! My brother lives only for the next world ; why, 
we can make a heaven of this one if we like, and we 
pioneers of this great Empire have got a duty to pos- 
terity.' He intimated that the Company's government, 
by promoting the welfare of the natives and preventing 
himself and his friends from wiping them off the face of 
the earth, stood in the way of this millennium. 

M. Coillard answered with a smile, "Mr. , do you 

forget that if you and I had been born a century earlier, 
the classes then in power would have denied us the means 
of improving our lot ? " 

"I don't forget. We taught them a lesson or two: 
French Kevolution, Chartists, and all that." 

M. Coillard, with shuddering [recollections, asked him 



436 COILLABJD OF THE ZAMBESI 



if he really wished to goad the natives into teaching the 
white man a lesson of the same sort ? He himself was 
not a sentimentalist in administrative matters. In 1887 
he had written : — 

a We are not among those who think a more liberal 
government would satisfy this nation which is not pre- 
pared for such progress. What it wants is a strong 
benevolent government of such a kind that the Gospel 
can develop the people and fit them for a better life." 

He believed in "rendering to all their dues," and 
when, in 1904, King Lewanika asked his opinion of 
the hut-tax about to be imposed in Barotsiland, he 
records : — 

" I said, ' The Lord Jesus paid tribute : why should 
not we ? ' I explained to him that that revenue was not 
private money which the king put in his pocket, but a 
treasure for public works and so on ; and I seized the 
opportunity of lecturing him on the way he makes his 
people work for him, from the beginning of the year to 
the end. ... I told him unpalatable truths, for which, 
however, he thanked me." * 

But to deprive the natives of the soil of their fathers, 
and thus of all herding, husbandry, or hunting on their 
own account — a policy constantly advocated by the class 
of colonists whom this man represented — seemed to him 
sheer robbery; and it distressed him to hear the name 

* This tyranny of forced labour for the king and chiefs has been 
put an end to by the Company's administration. Under the new 
decree of emancipation, the people are only required to work twelve 
days in the year for their feudal lords, 



1903] ENGLAND'S TRUST 437 



of the British Empire invoked upon such sentiments. 
He had spoken of this very thing in his farewell address 
in England with his usual simplicity and directness : — 

" I think that Great Britain has a great destiny before 
her, a great mission which G-od has entrusted to her, and 
I want to say a word here before I leave to lay this 
matter upon your hearts. My dear friends, it is not for 
naught that in the views of Providence your language 
goes round the world, and that the sun does not set upon 
Her Majesty's possessions. I do not believe that it is 
simply to get prosperity and to take all the riches and all 
that you can find in those countries. . . . Will these 
people — and here I do not speak simply of the Zambesi 
Mission, but of Africa — will these people be simply 
hewers of wood and drawers of water? Is it for this 
that the Lord has given you those people to rule ? What 
will be the end of it ? " 

This trip to the Victoria Falls with the present writer 
was real campaigning, for the railway was only partly 
constructed. Here it was possible to see him in charac- 
teristic surroundings — careless of food and creature 
comforts ; ever watchful for those of others. He saw 
and photographed the first lines of the bridge over the 
gorge, and found to his delight that the superintending 
engineer was a Frenchman, M. Imbault. One picture 
lingers in the memory, namely, the Sunday evening 
service, he was requested by the white men to hold at 
Livingstone, the township of Victoria Falls. The dark, 
stuffy little hut was crowded by men whose massive 
brows and shoulders asserted themselves curiously in the 
half-darkness against the background of mud wall. A few 
women and children sat under the lamps. There were 
no hymn-books, no one could have seen to read them if 



438 COILLARJD OF THE ZAMBESI 



there had been, but all could and did join in the familiar 
three, "Holy, Holy, Holy," " 0 God, our help in ages 
past," and " Eock of Ages." It was strange to stand 
where the Prince of Darkness had so lately reigned and 
hear the chorus that shook the roof. Oh that it might 
be not lip service only, but the true ideal of the new 
dominion ! 

M. Coillard spoke from the text which (as his auto- 
biography shows) had first brought the light to his own 
soul : "To as many as received Him, to them gave He 
the right to become the sons of God, even to as many as 
believed on His Name." 

Early in 1904 he was invited to preside over important 
missionary conferences in Johannesburg and in Living- 
stonia (Lake Nyassa) ; he was also asked to visit the 
American Mission at Bihe. All these invitations he had 
to refuse : the work was in too critical a condition. A 
dark cloud overhung everything ; the threatened inva- 
sion of the field by the schismatic Ethiopian Church, 
led by Willie Mokalapa, one of the most gifted, and 
apparently devoted, of the Basuto catechists. He had 
left the country some years before on the best of terms 
with the missionaries, and had ever since been carrying 
on a correspondence with the king, the character of 
which may be judged from one passage in a letter shown 
to M. Jalla : " Do not trust those white missionaries. 
They do not love you. It is only we who love you." 
He contrived to reach the capital several weeks before 
M. Coillard's own return, and to escort three members 
of the royal family who had been abroad for education, 
and whom he won over to his cause, thus lending the 
greatest prestige to his arrival at the capital. There he 
carried on a campaign of calumny, which, now that it is 
silenced, it would be idle to revive. M. Coillard wrote 
him the following letter : — 



1903] ETHIOPIAN ISM 439 



[Translation from the Sesuto.~] 
From F. Coillard. 

Sesheke, Oct. 8, 1903. 

My Brother, 

When we met near Bloemfontein, at the Waterworks Station, 
we had no time for all we had to say. Still, we said enough to show 
you how firmly my affection remains fixed on you. I wished, it is 
my desire, that you should be able to make us forget the sorrows you 
have caused us. You are our child, do not kick at those who have 
brought you up, and do not despise them before the heathen. That 
could not be a good beginning for your work. 

If you are fully resolved to come and teach in Barotsiland inde- 
pendently of us, then let it be so ; but I entreat you, my brother, do 
not let it be in a spirit of hostility and to dispute with us the field 
we have cleared and ploughed. Go with your colleagues to the ba- 

Lubale, to the Mashe, or even to the M , where there are as yet 

no baruti. And if you do not give another Gospel than the one we 
have given you, we shall rejoice, we shall pray to God for you, and 
when we meet again it will be with joy. My affection for you is 
always the same. My heart cleaves to you, my brother, though you 
have left us. 

Africa is an immense country, and even the part ruled by Lewanika 
is vast, very vast. If then you are burning with zeal for God, for 
souls, it is not necessary that you should tread on our toes. I do not 
desire that we should look askance at each other when we meet, 
above all in a country like this, which is, as you know, a country of 
sickness and death. If you come and settle here, even if at some 
distance from us, we must strengthen each other's hands by a mutual 
respect and affection, instead of causing reciprocal pain by despising 
each other, and thus destroying the work of God. 

Farewell, my brother. Receive my letter in a good spirit. 
It is I, who love thee still, 

F. Coillard. 

Reply. 

From the Rev. W. J. Mokalapa, Arch-Elder, Overseer, Director of 
the Training Institute, President of the District Conference, Pre- 
siding Elder of Barotsiland and Central Africa. 

To the N.W. Rhodesia 

Rev. F. Coillard 10 November 1903 

Dear Sir 

I have received your most insulting letter, dated Oct. 8th, 1903, 
in which you insulted me. You are not at all justified in opposing 



440 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



our coming into this country as Missionaries of the Gospel. There 
is still room enough for every Christian denomination in this valley, 
especially in this city where there are hundreds and hundreds of 
people unconverted. 

We are not going to snatch members of your Church, we don't 
want them. Yet the door of our church is still wide open for every 
soul that comes to Christ. 

In your letter you compared on [? one] to a Beast, freebooter, an 
adversary, etc., etc. Sir, you must know that I am a minister of the 
Word of Christ, Duely Ordained according to the holy Ordinances. 
If I respect you as a father, I don't see the reason why you shouldn't 
respect me as your son. Please stop this insolence of yours to me, or else 
I may be attempted to return the complement. I have not forgotten 
the ill-treatment I received from you, yet still for all I honour you as 
a father, you must also honour me as a son. 

There is no dispute let us work in harmony. We do recognise 
every Christian denomination on the surface of the Globe. 

I beg to remain with much respect and have the honour to be — 
Your sincer Son in Christ 

W. J. MOKALAPA, V.D.M. 

Presiding Elder. 

God did not send you here that you may claim the Country and 
prevent other Christian denomination to come into this country or 
even to this dying city of Lealui. This is impugned by Christ 
Himself. (Luc. 9. 49-50) 

I have heard that you are going about speaking evil against me and 
my Church, if you don't want to be in trouble, please stop it, my 
Church is loyol you can't charge it for dis-loyalty. 

" It was not an enemy that did this, else I could have 
borne it." 

This letter from his own son in the faith and the 
conduct which accompanied it, broke M. Coillard's heart 
and hastened his death. 

Some may think, as some have said, that the Kev. 
"Willie had better have remained a heathen than treat 
his spiritual father in such a way. Perhaps so. But 
before we cast stones at him we may well ask ourselves 



1904] 



ITS CAUSES 



441 



if white Christians have never displayed sectarian bitter- 
ness in even harsher forms ? 

M. Coillard said of this and all other manifestations of 
independence on the part of native Christians : " It is the 
ferment of adolescence. Do we not see the same thing 
in our own sons when they are not quite men ? It is 
not a reason for leaving them alone, but for watching 
over them more than ever." He himself deeply felt that 
the treatment of native Christians by white ones (often 
by real Christians), excluding them, even the best among 
them, from their Churches, and seizing every opportunity 
to disparage and laugh at them, had given but too much 
occasion in the past for a spirit of hostility and mistrust. 
He sometimes referred to Mme. Coillard's first atten- 
dance at church in Natal (1866). She had with her little 
Samuel Makotoko, a boy of four years old, whom she had 
brought up from infancy just as if he had been her own. 
Our Saviour said, " Suffer little children . . . and forbid 
them not," when His disciples rebuked them that brought 
them. But the sidesman informed her she must either 
send the black child out or go herself, so she had to stand 
in the porch holding his hand throughout the service. 
Unfortunately — and this was what grieved him — this 
hostility has been displayed all through South Africa, 
not so much against the real begetters of it as against 
the missionaries, their best friends. 

It ought perhaps to be said here that M. Coillard was 
not at all weak-minded about the treatment of the natives. 
He believed in guiding them with a very firm hand. He 
never permitted familiarity, though he encouraged con- 
fidence ; and in his own household he expected his boys 
to treat him with the same forms of respect as they used 
towards their native masters, not in words only but in 
gesture ; and it was therefore all the more painful to bear 



442 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



from some of his former pupils the insolence in which 
" Willie " encouraged them. 

This enmity and its results did not abate, but were 
rather intensified as weeks went on. All the dearest 
objects of his affections and labours among the Barotsi 
were, with few exceptions, alienated from him. Lewanika, 
the king, while overwhelming him with outward atten- 
tions, withdrew his confidence; the children ceased in 
large numbers to attend school; the "English" and 
" Normal " classes were forsaken by the older pupils in 
favour of those started by the Ethiopians. Some pro- 
fessing Christians apostatised with shameful excesses, 
and at the April Conference, 1904, even the Barotsi 
evangelists, the crown and proof of the ministry, men of 
proved character and convictions, threatened to desert to 
the new-comers. 

What he went through when these beloved but mis- 
guided disciples presented their ultimatum it is impos- 
sible to describe. He marked in his Bible the verse, " I 
have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought." 
He saw, as he thought, the whole work of his life — a 
work, moreover, which had cost so many other precious 
lives — crumbling into nothing. " Mon ceuvre s'effond 
avant moi," he exclaimed to one of his colleagues. But 
his work was not in vain. This last sorrow was spared 
him. 

" I took [the evangelists] apart, myself alone under a 
tree. God gave me grace to speak firmly to them, faith- 
fully, but from the heart too. At the end they asked me 
for a little time in which to reflect upon what I had said. 
These hours of waiting I spent alone in the bush. God 
alone knows my distress and my agony. ... In the end 
they reappeared, announcing that they would return to 
us. Since then the usual order has returned. Yes, but 



1904] A MINISTRY OF LOVE 443 



the future is big with storms, and never had we greater 
need to become prudent, wise, and, above all, loving. 
We have love, but we need to become loving ; that love 
may be always more the motive force of our ministry 
and life — not merely to have love in our hearts, but to 
show it." 

So he had written two years before in a less serious 
crisis (Journal, May 31, 1902) : — 

" May God forgive me ! If I had known how to love, 
how different my ministry would have been ! It seems 
to me that it is only now I have some slight glimpses of 
what love is — true love, the love of God which loves 
unselfishly, without calculation, without response ; which 
loves in spite of hostility, ingratitude, or even hatred ! 
God is love. My God . . . live in me, that I may live 
with Thy life and love with Thy love." 

It was the turning of the tide. By degrees confidence 
in the Mission returned ; the Ethiopian movement gra- 
dually flickered out ; the intriguers were caught in their 
own toils and openly discredited. Willie was forbidden 
the country, and at present not one of his people remains 
at Lealui. All this M. Coillard did not live to see. 
Though he had the comfort of knowing that the 
people's confidence had to some extent been restored, 
their spiritual deadness still depressed him. 

" March 4, 1904. 
"Bead lately Dr. Stewart's Dawn in the Dark Con- 
tinent, Daybreak in Livingstonia, and Among the Wild 
Ngoni, by Dr. Elmslie. To state my impressions would 
be impossible. I am humbled and moved to wonder. 
What great things the Lord has done there ! And why 



444 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



not here? Oh, when will that awakening come ? . . . 
Lord, forget us not for ever." 

He once wrote to a friend: "My great, great desire 
is, not to live a day longer than I can work." This wish 
was almost literally granted. 

This crisis with the evangelists was followed by a 
fortnight of hard work, preaching at each of the stations 
of the Upper Eiver, though he was suffering from fever 
the whole time, and often scarcely able to speak or stand. 
On May 16, 1904, he could hold out no longer, stricken 
down by the dreaded haBinaturic fever. He was devotedly 
tended by all the missionaries, men and women, especially 
by Dr. de Prosch and M. Adolphe Jalla, and also by his 
own boy, Stephen Semoindji ; but complications set in, 
and on Friday, May 27th, he passed away. Throughout 
his illness he was unable to converse, and scarcely noticed 
what passed around him ; though he recognised his 
friends, he sent no farewells, uttered no last words. 
His work was done. He ploughed and sowed; others 
will reap the harvest. 

Two at least of his desires were accomplished. He 
died in the midst of his work, and was buried beside his 
wife under the great tree of Sefula. A marble cross, 
erected by his colleagues, marks the spot, engraved with 
his name and the motto of his life : 

" To Live is Christ." 

On June 1st the railway reached Victoria Falls, just 
two days after the funeral of him who had opened the 
way. The pioneer days were over. 

When the news of his death reached Europe, a 
memorial meeting was convened in Paris at the Oratoire, 
on July 17th, the day on which, had he lived, he would 
have completed his 70th year. The vast building, hung 



1904.] LAST TRIBUTES 445 



with black, was filled to overflowing to give thanks 
for this faithful servant whose life had been a blessing 
to so many. They sang the hymn he had loved in 
childhood : — 

" Non, ce rCest pas mourir que d'aller vers son Dieu." 

Striking addresses were delivered by the Eev. G-. 
Appia, the Kev. A. Boegner, Director of the Missions 
Evangeliques, and by Captain Bertrand and M. Edouard 
Favre of Geneva, representing the wide circle of M. 
Coillard's supporters beyond the boundaries of France. 

M. Boegner dwelt on his early life and the legacies of 
its later period: the new mission field conquered, the 
immense number of hearts won by him to God's service 
in Europe ; the spectacle of triumphant faith. M. Favre 
said : " Coillard was given to France : he has been taken 
from the whole world." 

Captain Bertrand spoke of Christian missions (exempli- 
fied in M. Coillard's life), as bearing witness to Kevealed 
Truth. " They constitute a power which escapes man's 
intelligence and analysis ; they are the continuation of 
the apostles' work, and apart from the subtleties of 
theology, they avail to bring us back to the True Faith." 

The Eev. G. Appia spoke of M. Coillard's deep humility, 
which never allowed him to imagine that he was prob- 
ably the greatest missionary that the Paris Society had 
ever sent out. " The great service which Coillard had 
rendered is to have been in the fullest sense the man 
— the Christian of his own epoch ; and to have demon- 
strated . . . that by the grace of God a life can be lived 
in full modern conditions to which, in face of modern 
pessimism, we can point and say, 1 Here is the proof that 
life is in itself a good, and that the Gospel is to-day and 
ever remains the school of such a life and character as 
we would all desire to leave in memory.'"" 



446 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



Extract from the Will of Francois Coillaed. 

" On the threshold of eternity, and in the 
presence of my god, i solemnly bequeath to the 
Churches of France, my native land, the responsi- 
bility of the Lord's work in Barotsiland, and I 

ADJURE THEM. IN HlS HOLY NAME, NEVER TO GIVE IT 
UP — WHICH WOULD BE TO DESPISE AND RENOUNCE THE 
RICH HARVEST RESERVED TO THE SOWING THEY HAVE 
ACCOMPLISHED IN SUFFERING AND TEARS." 



THE END. 



THROUGH THE RAPIDS. 




THE GREAT TREE OF SEFULA. 

Graves of Rev. F. and Mine. Coillard, Mine, de Prosch, M. Lienard, M. Pittener, and 

of Philippe Volla. 

[To face p. 446. 



Appendices 



\ 



APPENDIX I 



COILLAKD OF THE ZAMBESI 

(By Mr. P. Lyttelton Gell, a Director of the British South 
Africa Co.) 

Beprinted and Abridged by hind permission. 
To the Editor of The Times. 

June, 1904. 

Sir, — Your issue of June 20th contained the announcement of the 
death of a remarkable man, the Eev. Francois Coillard, a devoted 
French pastor, the chief of the Zambesi Mission, whose career is so 
interesting to Englishmen, both in its results and in its failures, that 
it should scarcely pass unnoticed. . . . 

It was M. Coillard who acted as interpreter, who explained to the 
Barotsi king and the National Assembly every detail of the negotia- 
tions with the Chartered Company, and who advised the Act which 
converted Barotsiland into North-West Bhodesia. 

But for this indomitable French missionary and the Chartered 
Company, Lewanika, who has twice fought his way to the throne, 
would not have held his ground against Portuguese encroachments 
and internal factions, and, but for him, Barotsiland would never have 
known the blessings of the past ten years of peace. 

Above all, no one but M. Coillard could have maintained through 
all these years the faith of Lewanika and his Chiefs in the justice and 
veracity of the Imperial authorities at home, while so greatly tried by 
the unchecked inroads of the Portuguese. The British Foreign Office 
had plunged without knowledge into the treaty which cut in two the 
dominion of a dependent nation. Great Britain handed the western 
slice to the Portuguese, reserving, however, to the Barotsi the right 
to recover their own territory subsequently, if they could prove their 
( oupation. For years the Barotsi have called upon the Imperial 
vernment to do them justice, and for years the Imperial Govern- 
ment has merely tendered promises of attention, accompanied with 
rigid instructions that our friends must on no account resist the 
Portuguese, who have meanwhile established post after post in the 

30 449 



450 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



disputed territory. In the official Empyrean, where such things 
seem unimportant and all things await their turn, there is little 
thought of the grave injury to those who trust us, little sympathy for 
those who have to come back again and again to their people with 
empty hands and unfulfilled pledges. Now, at length, the claims of 
the Barotsi Federation to live undivided under the British flag have 
been faced by Lord Lansdowne, and only await the verdict of the 
King of Italy. If, owing to the original error of our Foreign Office, 
the award does not substantially secure the Barotsi rights, it may be 
well to remember that one voice is silent which would have been 
raised to calm misunderstanding and to counsel acquiescence.* 

There is something inspiring in the figure of this solitary French 
missionary throwing himself twenty years ago into a post beyond the 
uttermost confines of civilisation, and fighting on tenaciously to 
evolve Christianity and moral order out of the Barotsi chaos until the 
tide of " Pax Britannica" should sweep on to him, and Great Britain 
reap where he had sown. To the best of my recollection, not one 
shot has been fired by the Company's forces to gather the Barotsi 
under the British flag. I do not minimise the credit due to King 
Lewanika — surrounded as he is by tribal difficulties — nor to Major 
Coryndon, the Company's tactful and sympathetic Administrator ; 
but for the mutual confidence and loyalty, which has made a good 
understanding possible, Englishmen are indebted to this single- 
hearted and indomitable Frenchman. 

Judged by missionary statistics, it might be urged that the definite 
results have been small in proportion to the grave cost in life and 
energy ; and, at the very close of his life, Coillard's heart was broken 
by the appearance of the Ethiopian Schismatics upon the scene of 
his labours, seducing his unstable followers by the offer of their 
bastard Christianity — retrograde and polygamous. 

And yet the career of M. Coillard emphatically illustrates the 
broader and deeper aspects of mission work — the leaven which may 
spread from the presence of one single-hearted, devoted man of the 
higher race (for higher the White Bace is, despite all sentimentality), 
one man of immovable and fearless rectitude amongst these un- 
developed negroid peoples. That fact, and the responsibility which 
attaches to it, must remain both the justification and the test of all 
Missions in South Africa. 

* Since this letter was written, the award of the Arbitrator (the 
King of Italy) has been published. It surrendered to Portuguese 
rule a large area over which Lewanika had exercised sovereignty, 
though he recovered a large portion of the territory claimed by the 
Barotsi, 



APPENDIX I 



451 



While M. Coillard and many of his helpers have laid down their 
lives, seeming to leave a mere handful of definite " converts " behind 
them, it is impossible to estimate the good done, and the evil arrested, 
in the welter of a fickle, immoral, and unprincipled people by the 
leaven of his sincerity and devotion. The transformation of the ruth- 
less and vindictive Eobosi into the seeking, reforming Lewanika — 
not even now a professed convert to his friend's faith, yet " coveting 
earnestly the best gifts" — the pacific passage of a great territory 
racked with bloodshed, slave-raids, and hideous cruelties, into the 
haven of the " Pax Britannica," the suppression of torture and witch- 
doctors, the growing respect for life, marriage-law and contracts — 
such things — not the mere list of " converts " — show the influence of 
M. Coillard' s personality. He was not the active instrument in such 
things ; but while spending himself with indomitable hopefulness 
upon his frivolous and wayward disciples, he unconsciously created 
the atmosphere, the trust, and the aspirations which made so much 
possible. . . . 

The retrospect of M. Coillard' s journeys recalls the enormous 
responsibilities thrust upon our Empire within a single lifetime. 

Basutoland, Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Barotsiland, not to men- 
tion the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, were all outside the 
"Pax Britannica" when M. Coillard first approached them in his 
mission journeys. He had seen all harried by violence, and from all 
in turn he had been repulsed. 

On his last journey, when he returned to die at Lealui, M. Coillard 
traversed successively all these great territories, through which 
he had once trekked in peril and privation, and saw them united in 
absolute peace under British protection ; and the Rhodesian railway 
brought him home to the far-off country on the Zambesi, which in 
the past it had taken many arduous months to reach. 

I am, Sir, yours faithfully, 

P. Lyttelton Gell. 

Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall. 



Extract from the Minutes of a Board Meeting of the British South 
Africa Company, held on the 22nd June, 1904. 

Barotsi Mission (Paris Missionary Society). 

death of the rev. francois coillard. 

The Secretary reported that a cable announcing the death of the 
Rev. F. Coillard, the head of the Barotsi Mission, had been received 
by the relatives. 



452 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



The Board desired to place on record an expression of its deep 
regret at the death of the Rev. Mr. Coillard ; its appreciation of his 
high ideals, self-sacrifice, and devotion to duty ; and its sense of the 
great loss which the removal by death of its distinguished chief would 
be to the Mission, the beneficent work of which in Barotsiland the 
Board had for many years fully recognised. 



FROM HIS HONOUR THE ADMINISTRATOR OF BAROTSI- 
LAND, NORTH-WEST RHODESIA. 

... I think it was M. Coillard's constant endeavour to have as 
little as possible to do with political questions, and to alienate him- 
self from all controversy and connection with such matters ; and I 
can recollect no occasion on which his advice was ever unduly thrust 
forward or in which he interfered in the slightest degree with any 
official matter with which I was connected. 

I found it advisable to consult him upon a few rare occasions as to 
some point upon which his unique experience and sound judgment 
could alone cast the necessary light, and though he never offered 
advice, he never refused it to me, and in every case have I been 
grateful for his assistance. I know both from himself and from Mr. 
Adolphe Jalla that Lewanika occasionally consulted him upon some 
matter in connection with the administration which he did not quite 
understand, and I am perfectly confident that in every such case 
the advice tendered to the chief was carefully thought out, wise, 
and kind. 

Apart from matters of personal feeling, and speaking officially, I 
have never ceased to be grateful for the fact that M. Coillard was at 
hand in the early days to explain to Lewanika and the indunas 
questions which they did not understand, to smooth away any 
temporary irritation on their part, and, I have no doubt, to speak 
plainly to them when occasion demanded. 

I like to believe that he felt an admiration for British methods of 
Colonial administration, and I trust and believe that he was satisfied 
with the honesty and sound lines upon which it has been my constant 
endeavour to direct the settlement of those points upon which I 
found myself in disagreement with Lewanika and his Council ; and 
I suspect that the British South Africa Company is indebted to 
M. Coillard's wisdom and loyalty upon more occasions than I am 
actually aware of. Of his personal charm of manner and invariable 
courtesy and honesty I do not desire to speak much now, except to 
record my gratitude for his charmingly expressed sympathy and 



APPENDIX I 



453 



advice and his frequent kindnesses to our officials ; but I am abidingly 
conscious of the fact that in my official work I owe much of what 
I trust to be the present feeling of mutual friendship and confidence 
between Lewanika and our Administration to M. Coillard's honesty of 
thought and heart, his sound judgment, and, not least, his loyalty 
to the Government to whose care was committed the country for 
whose sake he worked and died. 

For his personal character I have nothing but the greatest regard ; 
but what I wish to emphasise now is the fact that I recognise the 
assistance he was to the Administration, and I can afford no better 
proof than the fact that not once since I arrived in Lealui in 1897 
was his name used as a handle against us or as a menace to us ; and 
that officially as well as privately his presence was never anything 
but an encouragement and an aid. 

(Signed) B. T. Coryndon. 



FEOM THE EEV. JUSTE BOUCHET, SEFULA. 

Our dear doyen ... in Europe no one will ever know all that this 
hero whom Gi-od has recalled to Himself was to our Mission. People 
have read his life, and have seen the heroic side of it, but the other 
side, the simple, human side, was even more beautiful and inspiring. 

What patience, what charity, what devotion have we not seen in 
the work of our venerated friend I With what emotion have we not 
always seen the light of his study-lamp, which had always long been 
burning when we, young folk, began to think of rising. And those 
morning hours of which he was so jealous he employed in meditating 
on God's Word and in prayer. 

It happened to me rather often [when at Lealui] to ask the 
hospitality of his study when the mosquitoes drove me from my 
bed ; each time I left it with something infinitely sweet and good. 
We scarcely spoke, both being generally busy. But at one moment 
or another he would invite me to pray with him, and what good he 
did me by those prayers, so simple and so fervent, where nothing 
was forgotten. Oh that little study ... its walls worn through by 
the lizards [and ants]. I shall never forget it. How often . . . has 
an instant spent there in prayer with him brought back to me the 
sense of freedom needful for thinking and believing. And when we 
rose again, and he would say with his kind look, pressing my hand, 
" Well, brother Bouchet, the Lord will give you something good for 
our people," his faith reinforced mine ; and I felt that it would be so, 
because the Spirit of God was there. 



454 COILLARD OF THE ZAMBESI 



FKOM THE EEV. A. MANN. 

Formerly of the Barotsi Mission {Paris Missionary Society). 

There are unique personalities, exercising such extraordinary power 
over people, that it is very difficult to discover just where it begins 
and where it ends. Such was the influence of M. Coillard over the 
Ba-rotsi. His position was unique ; his power unprecedented. But 
neither was self-arrogated nor used in an arbitrary way. To some he 
was the prophet of Jehovah, bringing a gosnel of peace and goodwill 
— calling a nation from its bondage of sin nto the liberty wherewith 
Christ made them free. By such he was loved dearly, and they were 
always ready to listen to his wonderful expositions of Scripture. To 
others he was a father; "the childless father of a nation," whose 
home was ever open to receive the oppressed, and whose heart was 
ever beating with a paternal affection towards them. To those of 
high and low degree, he was the nation's trusty counsellor, faithful 
friend — a Mo-rotsi — one of our nation. . . . M. Coillard was always 
given the name par excellence among the missionaries. . . . [Not 
merely] his seniority, but . . . his deep piety was the secret of his 
unique power. If he was held in high repute by the court, he would 
never compromise his conscience, but like a Hebrew seer he would 
raise his voice against its sensuality, luxury, and paganism, until vice 
was constrained to hide its head in shame. His courage was not 
that of a Eichard Cceur de Lion, but rather that of a Savonarola. 
There was never any lack of time-servers who were ready to whisper 
"treason," and seek to impeach the faithful and dauntless witness, 
but the king was inevitably obliged to confess, " It is not treason but 
truth." . . . All missionaries obtain a good hearing, but I observed 
that when M. Coillard was preaching the congregation was excep- 
tionally good, and the attention most remarkable. Every thought 
was illuminated by some illustration taken from life such as they 
could grasp and follow. He could stoop to their mental level as few 
could, and thus make things clear and lucid which before were 
obscure. 

He took the suffering human race, 

He read each wound, each weakness clear, 

And with his ringer on the place, 

He said, " Thou ailest here and here." 

He was as much appreciated in the towns and villages as in the 
Church and on the station. It was my pleasure to accompany him 
several times, and everywhere we went I noticed that the people 
really loved him. 



APPENDIX I 



455 



His heart was so full of sympathy and love, his life so gentle and 
gracious, that one could not live with him without being a better 
missionary. . . . He was always intensely interested in my own work 
at Mabumbu. 

I shall always remember his touching words to all the missionaries 
assembled at Loatile. M. Coillard leading the meeting read Luke v. 
1-11, " We have toiled all night and taken nothing.'" Again he read 
these words . . . until he trembled with emotion. ..." Yes, alas ! I 
have toiled all night, a long night it has been, sometimes chilled by 
the winds, at others tossed by the waves ; but labour in vain and 
strength spent for nought." Then tears came to his relief, and with 
upturned head and outstretched hand, as if grasping a coming promise 
of his beloved Master, he cried. ..." Nevertheless, at Thy word, I will 
let down the net." He had that moment caught the inspiration of 
his Master's promise, and believing it, every word sounded now with 
ringing cheer and hope. " Soul, hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
praise Him." That meeting was a spiritual uplift to us all, and we 
returned to our work with greater hope and stronger faith than ever 
our souls possessed before. . . . 

It is one of the supremest joys of my life to have lived and laboured 
with such a great and good man ; a man so intensely human, yet who 
in his daily life reflected his Saviour's moral and spiritual glories to an 
extraordinary degree. Living and walking in the Spirit, the Spirit's 
fruit, " Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness," beautified his every-day life. I have ceased to search for 
the secret of his unique power and chastened character, for long 
before I left . . . that was known to me. Long before man had 
awakened from sleep and the sun had risen, Francois Coillard was 
awake and in the intimacy of Divine communion. When Moses came 
down from the mount his face shone, but he wist it not, and when 
Francois Coillard came forth from those early hours of contemplation 
and devotion, his very life was seraphic — we knew it well though he 
"wist it not." . . . 

Dear M. Coillard may sometimes have felt that his work was not 
very successful, but I believe it was vastly more successful than even 
he or others have imagined or thought. There will be many glad 
surprises in heaven when the saints enter with their works, and 
amongst them there will be this — that his work was crowned with 
lustre, glory, and success. 



APPENDIX II 



GLOSSAEY 

Ba, noun, prefix, indicating plural. 

Ba-rotsi (or Ma-rotsi), people of Barotsiland. 

Ba-ruti, (1) teachers, (2) missionaries. 

Bo, noun prefix, indicating multitude. 

Bo-rena, the chiefs, the governing body. 

Gambella, title of Prime Minister. 

Ho lumela (infinitive mood), to agree [with] . 

Ho ba-'pala, to play, or amuse oneself. 

Ifu, manes, ancestral spirits (serotsi). 

Khosi (or n'Khosi) , one of the nobility ; a chief. 

Impi, regiment (Zulu). 

In&ima, captain or chief (Zulu). 

Lelchothla, court of council, or tribunal. 

Letsema, a day's work done for the chief (corvee). 

Lengolo, (1) writing, (2) Scriptures, (3) all instruction. 

Lebila, magic potion ; medicine. 

Li-Jeomboa, plural of Sehomboa, the king's personal staff. 
SebuJcu (or Seboha), the representative animal of a man or tribe. 
Liomba, second Minister of State. 
Litaola, divining bones. 
Liteng, light beer. 

Liyumbu, ceremonious gift of food to a guest. 
Lumela, Good-day — the universal greeting. 
Ma, noun prefix, forming plural. 
Ma, mother, or matron. 
Ma-leseli, Mother of Light. 
Mabele, Kaffir corn, sorgho. 
Ma-fi, thick curded milk. 
Ma-lapa, courts fenced with reeds. 
Ma-luti, chain of mountains. 

Ma-mbari, half- civilised natives of Portuguese "West Coast. 

456 



APPENDIX II 



MeJcoa, customs, festivals. 

Mo, noun, prefix, forming singular. 

Mo-rotsi, singular of Barotsi. 

Mo-suto, singular of Basuto. 

Mo-nycd, singular of Banyai. 

Moati, the poison used for trial by ordeal. 

Mo-limo, God, the Deity ; plural, melimo, used for tribal deities. 
Monere (or monare), father; title of respect. 
Morena, supreme chief or king, a ruler (in Scripture, Lord) 
Moruti, teacher, missionary. 

MothlanJca, servant, dependant ; plural, ba-thlanlta. 

Motselisi, comforter. 

Mo-sali, a woman. 

Mo-loi, sorcerer (plural, baloi). 

NaliJcuanJca, the state barge. 

Natamoyo, Minister of Mercy. 

Ntate, father, term of affection. 

Ntho, a thing. 

Ngaka, doctor, magician. 

Nyambe, name of the Supreme God (serotsi). 

Pitso, tribal assembly. 

Pelaelo, arriere-pensees ; grievances. 

Se, prefix, indicating the language. 

Se-suto, language of the Basuto. 

Se-rotsi, language of the Barotsi. 

Se-nyai, language of the Banyai. 

Sepora, stool. 

Setsiba, a piece of cloth two and a half yards long, used as a kilt 

It is a standard value in barter. 
Shangwe, sir, or master; an expression of respect (serotsi). 
Shoalela, the royal salute. 
Setsomi, sportsman. 
Tau-tona, lion. 
ThaJca, equal-in-age. 

Thuto, (1) the Gospel, (2) the teaching of Christianity. 
Yoala, strong beer. 



APPENDIX III 



LIST OF BOOKS ON BAROTSILAND 

In English. 

Seven Years in South Africa. 2 vols. ... ... Dr. E. Holub. 

A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa F. C. Selous. 

Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa, 

1882-1893 F. C. Selous. 

How I Crossed Africa. 2 vols. Sampson Low 

& Co. Major Serpa Pinto. 

Eomance and Reality in Central Africa. Hodder 

& Stoughton ... ... ... ... ... Dr. J. Johnston, 

of Jamaica. 

The Kingdom of the Barotsi. T. Fisher Unwin A. Bertrand. 
Exploration and Hunting in Central Africa. 

Methuen Major A. St. Hill 

Gibbons. 

Africa from South to North through Ma- 

Kotseland. 2 vols. John Lane Major A. St. Hill 

Gibbons. 

Explorations in Central Africa and in the Zambesi 

Basin, 1840-1864 D. Livingstone. 

The Zambesi and its Tributaries ... D. Livingstone. 

(And all biographies of Livingstone.) 
In Kemotest Barotsiland. Hurst & Blackett ... Colonel Harding. 

Three Years in Savage Africa ... Lionel Decle. 

On the Threshold of Central Africa. Hodder & 

Stoughton, 7s. 6d. F. Coillard. 

Alone in Africa ; or, Seven Years on the Zambesi. 

J. Nisbet, Is Mme. Goy. 

A Visit to King Lewanika. Is Captain Luck. 

Article by Sir Arthur Lawley in Blackwood's 

Magazine, 1898. 

Garenganze ... F. S. Arnot. 



News from Barotsiland (Letters of Missionaries), 1898-1907 (Hon. 
Sec, 5, Adamson Road, S. Hampstead). 



APPENDIX III 



459 



In French. 

Sur le Haut Zambeze, 8 frs. Berger Levrault ... F. Coillard. 

Notre Voyage au Zambeze (1899), 6 frs. ... J. L. Lienard. 

Lettres and Fragments (Imprimerie Coueslant, 

Cahors, Lot, France), 1901. 5 frs J. L. Lienard. 

Pionniers parmi les Marotse (1890-1902), 

3 frs. 50c. ... ... ... ... ... ... Adolphe Jalla. 

Les Ma-Eotse. Etude Geographique and 

Ethnographique (1902) (Benda, Lausanne) ... Eugene Beguin. 
Etudes sur les Langues du Haut Zambeze 

(Ernest Leroux, Paris, 28, Eue Bonaparte) ... E. Jacottet. 

Dans les Solitudes de l'Afrique (1 fr.) ... ... Mme. Goy. 

La Mission au Zambeze ... ... ... ... T. Jousse. 

Au Pays des Barotsis. Hachette... ... ... A. Bertrand 



Magazines. 

Journal des Missions Evangeliques. (The organ 
of the Paris Society.) 6 frs. yearly 

Nouvelles du Zambeze (Imprimerie Kiindig, 
Eue due Vieux College, Geneva). 1 fr. yearly. 



r 102, Boulevard 
} Arago, Paris, 
( France. 



LIST OF BOOKS ON BASUTOLAND. 

In English. 

Basutoland Eecords. 3 vols. (1830-69) Compiled by G. M. Theal. 
Among Boers and Basutos (1893) ... ... Mrs. Barkly. 

Fourteen Years in Basutoland (1891) ... Canon Widdicombe. 
Basutoland: Its Legends and Customs (1903) ... Mrs. Martin. 
A Practical Method to Learn Sesuto (1906). Morija. E. Jacottet. 
Eeports. To be had from Mrs. Sutherland- Taylor 
(Hon. Sec), 57, Mildmay Park, N. 



In French. 

Voyage d'Exploration (1836) M. Arbousset. 

(English Translation of the above.) 
Les Bassoutos (I860) ... ... ... ... E. Casalis. 

(English Translation of the above.) 

Mes Souvenirs E. Casalis. 

Au Sud de l'Afrique (Illustrated) F. Christol. 

Vie de A. Mabille, Missionaire au Lessouto ... H. Dieterlen 
La Mission francaise au Sud 

de l'Afrique (Fischbacher) . 2 vols. (1889)... T. Jousse. 



Vincit Qui Patitur. 



5n jflDemortam. 

FRANCOIS AND CHRISTINA COILLARD 

BUKIED AT SEFULA, UPPEB ZAMBESI. 

ALSO THEIR COMRADES 
Who laid down their lives in the Barotsi Mission. 



Mme. BOUCHET. 

Mme. EVA DUPUY. 

Mme. LOUIS JALLA. 

Mme. ADOLPHE JALLA. 

Mme. MABTIN. 

Mes. MANN. 

Mme. DE PBOSCH. 

Dr. DABDIEB. 

Bev. A. GOY. 

Bev. J. LIENABD. 

M. GEOBGES MEBCIEB. 

M. BITTENEB. 

ELEAZAB MABATHANE. 

BUSHMAN. 

KHOSANA. 

THEODOBE. 



ELISA PAULUS. 

And the Children — 
MABGUEBITE JEANMAIBET. 
EMILE GOY. 
GIULIO JALLA. 
GUIDO & ODOABDO JALLA. 
MABGUEBITE AND ANITA 

JALLA. 
ALBEBT BOITEUX. 
JEANNE BOITEUX. 
MADELEINE LAGEABD. 
AMELIE LAGEABD. 
PHILIPPE VOLLA. 
MONYAI. 
FILOLOKA. 

CABOLINE. AND OTHEBS. 



We must remember that it was not by interceding for the world in glory- 
that Jesus saved it. He gave Himself, and our prayers for the evangeli- 
sation of the world are but a bitter irony so long as we only give of our 
superfluity and hold back from the sacrifice of ourselves. 

F. COILLABD. 



Index 



Aaron, Basuto catechist : 
goes to Zambesi, 228, 236, 248 
joins second expedition, 313 

Adam Kok, Griqua chief, 44, 45, 49 

Adventures, see F. Coillard 

Adventurers : 

on Basuto frontier, 50, 55, 71, 81, 
303 

Africa : 

Opening up of, 119, 175, 211, 220, 
268, 407, 425, 434, 437, 444 

Partition of, 381, 395, Appendix I. 

Sins of, 412 
African lakes, 268 
African Lakes Company, 295 
African code of honour, 54, 55, 73, 

129, 131, 132, 207, 240, 253, 264, 

329 
African : 

methods of reasoning, 250, 257, 258, 
332, 333 

methods of trading, 355 
Akanagisoa chieftainess, 342 
Akufuna : 

rebel king at Lealui, 319 
Alsace, 10, 295 
American Mission : 

Bihe, 438 

Natal, 157, 162, 164 
Analogies with Old Testament life, 

44, 47, 48, 63, 67, 76, 106, 107, 

128, 136, 181, 182, 238, 259, 269, 

301 
Anarchy : 

in France, 14 

in Basutoland, 80, 303, 309 
at the Zambesi, 267, 321, 338 
its results, 367 
pious, 408 



Ancestral spirits, 309, 339. 347, 348, 
361, 431 

Andre-Walther, Mme., 15, 95, 96 
Andreas, evangelist, 228, 235 
Anglican Mission, 72, 209 

in Basutoland, 292, 311 
Ant-eater (aardvark), 127 
Antelopes, 174, 347, 358 

mistaken for a forest, 271 
Appia, Rev. G., 445 
Arab parentage of Bantus, 41 
Arbitration ; 

of Sir Harry Smith, 52 

of Sir G. Grey, 56, 410 

of Sir P. Wodehouse, 120, 169, 170 

of King of Italy, 395 
Arbitration Decree, its terms, 338, 

402, and Appendix 
Arbousset, Rev., 32, 38, 43, 46 

pioneer of Basutoland, Preface 

his explorations, 47 
Arnot, F. S., 314, 315, 333 
Asilesde la Force, 11, 93, 102 
Asnieres-les-Bourges, 7, 8, 17, 24, 28, 

98, 107, 108 
Asser, Basuto catechist : 

his explorations, 212 

joins Banyai Expedition, 218, 228 

at Lo Bengula's, 248, 251, 252, 256- 
7, 258 

Azael, Basuto catechist, 228, 243 

Backhouse, James, visits Basuto- 
land, 46 

Bahurutsi tribe, 43 

Baines, Thomas, explorer, 211, 236 

Baldwin, Rev. (Primitive Methodist 
Mission), 388,390-1 

Balubale tribe, 399, 401, 439 



461 



462 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Balunda tribe, 399 
Bantu race, parentage, 41 

missions to, 42 
Banyailand : 
its explorers, 211, 213, 228, 258 
under Matabele rule, 211, 229, 238, 

245, 248, 251 
its beauty and fertility, 236, 239, 
249, 269 
Banyai Expedition : 
planned, 211, 214, 216 
encouraged by Major Malan, 213, 
216 

sent out by Basuto Cbristians, 212, 
214, 219, 257, 310 

opposition of Transvaal Govern- 
ment, 214, 218, 220, 221 

M. Coillard asked to lead, 221 

second start, 227 

reacbes Pretoria, 229 

reacbes Valdezia, 234 

its perils, 235 

generalship needed, 237 

reacbes Banyai, 238 

attacked by Masonda, 241 

received by Maliankombe, 245 

carried captive by Matabele, 248, 253 
Banyai people : 

why they wanted missionaries, 229, 
241 , 

cowardly, 238, 239, 251 

grasping, 237, 239, 246, 247 

tbeir language, 250, 267 

their habits, 238, 241, 249, 250 

a woman's kindness, 252 

evangelised by Cape Dutch Mission, 
252 

Baralong tribe, at Viervoets, 52 

at Thaba Bossio, 135 
Barotsi : 

tribe distinguished from nation, 338 
its privileges, 339, 353 
allied tribes, 267 
appreciate Mme. Coillard, 278 
contrasted with Basutos, 325, 337, 
340 

fine manners, 271 



Barotsi (continued) — 

poisoners, 180, 278, 279, 316, 341, 
360 

characteristics, 337 et seq. 
callousness, 223, 365, 373 
mercantile spirit, 323, 355 
treachery, 316, 321, 322, 324, 363 
frivolity, 325, 349, 373 
absence of family life, 348, 373 
depravity, 348, 350, 353, 363, 375 
religion, 278, 339, 345 et seg.,431 
religious character of kingship, 339, 
348 

revere tombs, 278, 339, 346, 431 
respect magicians, 320, 332, 339, 

342, 353, 361, 362 
Heaven, 346, 348 
tribal deities, 346, 431 
Superstitions, 365 
Social conditions, 353 et seq., 361 

365-73 

tyranny of chiefs, 353, 357, 370, 372 
industrial talents, 329, 338, 339-41 
love of clothes, 328, 338, 340, 375 
ideas of wearing, 341 
their history, 339, 342 et seq. 
their language, 119, 267, 272 
their first king, 339-43 
threatened by Matabele, 271, 273, 

316, 340, 398, 399 
invoke help of Makololo, 273, 277, 

338 

respect for Makololo, 179, 272, 324 
exterminate Makololo, 180, 267, 
275-7 

reinstate Barotsi chiefs, 270, 277 
rebel against Barotsi chiefs, 270, 
278 

depose Lewanika, 316, 319 et seq. 
Barotsi people : 
national rebirth, 330, 344 
invite missionaries, 267, 314 
welcome missionaries, 319, 327, 

330, 333, 404 
plot against missionaries, 348, 386, 

389, 391 

ask for British protection, 361, 381 



INDEX 



463 



Barotsi people (continued) — 

oppose British protection, 315, 361, 

381-2, 385-93 
accept British protection, 385, 395 
National Council, 319, 343, 382 
raid Mashikulumbwe, 367, 368, 369 
show sympathy, 377 
prefer strategy to valour, 273, 339 
expedition against Balubale, 399 

et seq. 
awakening, 397 
changed conditions, 398, 403 
wandering habits, 397 
delight at Lewanika's return, 430 
Barotsi Christians, 397, 402, 403 
baptized, 397, 413, 425 
beguiled by Ethiopian Church, 438- 

43 

Barotsi evangelists, 442 

Barotsi Valley flooded annually, 341, 

354, 358 
Barotsiland : 

ruled by Sebitoane, 40 

barred to travellers, 267 

a swamp, 337-8, 370, 425 

unhealthy, 280, 383-4, 397, 425-8, 
439 

little known, 383-4 
its area, 336, 381, and Appendix 
called North-West Khodesia, 426 
visited by Livingstone, 179, 180, 

267, 273-6, 316 
Barotsi Mission : 

first proposed by M. Mabille, 119,203 

decided upon, 267, 288, 292, 293 

first donation, 213, 294 

its early supporters, 295 

how maintained, 293 

criticised, 287-9, 293, 295, 310, 408, 

427 

first expedition starts, 268 
second expedition starts, 310, 312 
reaches Pretoria, 313 
reaches Zambesi, 314 
crosses Zambesi, 319 
founded at Sesheke, 320 
founded at Sefula, 331, 333, 348 



Barotsi Mission (continued) — 

opposed by chiefs, 332, 386, 389, 

393, 396 
founded at Lealui, 396 
reinforced, 370, 424-7 
its results, 403 
losses by death, 426-7 
a help to other Missions, 294, 413 

414, 419 
Basutos : 

of Bantu race, 41, 330 

courage and independence, 42, 47, 

53, 135, 137, 167, 304, 338 
withstand Colonial forces, 48, 52, 

53, 303 

emotional and affectionate, 88, 373 
social virtues, 41, 46, 54, 55, 329, 
339, 340 

customs, 64, 66, 67, 68, 74, 78, 79, 
83, 86 

delight at seeing a Jew, 114 
sufferings in war, 37, 38, 44, 64, 120, 

121, 140, 141, 159, 167 
lawlessness, 49, 53, 81, 82, 85, 118,123 
refuse to bum corn, 55, 309 
required to pay indemnity, 125, 130, 

131, 138, 140, 151 
challenge Free Staters on Mission 

Station, 131, 132 
entrenched at Thaba Bossio, 133 
repulse Wepener, 134-7 
attacked at Mekuatling, 146-9 
evacuate conquered territory, 169, 

170 

ashamed of betraying Langalibalele, 
207 

accept Cape protection, 169 
forbidden to purchase arms, 55, 167, 
168 

protest against disarmament, 299, 

300 
rebel, 301-4 

shocked by Joel's atrocities, 309 
come under Imperial Government, 
310 

granted arms, 299 
export corn, 311 



464 COILLARD OF 

Basuto catechists : 
to be trained, 116 ,187 
volunteer for mission work, 119, 

211, 214, 219 
imprisoned at Pretoria, 218, 220, 221 
start for Banyailand, 214, 228, 233 
" should die like men," 244 
difficulties with, 237, 257-9, 267 
proof of devotion, 233, 259-60, 268, 

283, 292, 310 
left at Shoshong, 268 
worn out, 267, 269 
rejected by Matabele, 252, 255, 

264 

welcomed by Barotsi, 272, 314, 

324-5, 371 
left at Seleke, 290 
rejoin second expedition, 312 
to be maintained by Basuto 

churches, 293 
start for Zambesi, 310, 312 
return to Basutoland, 371 
their value in Barotsiland, 324, 

371 

other references, 230, 248, 251, 

267, 289, 319, 327 
their wives, 244, 258 
Basuto language (Sesuto), 46, 65, 69 
F. Coillard's knowledge of it, 103, 

212 

spoken at Zambesi, 119, 267, 272 
Basuto chiefs : 

encourage missions, 45, 186 
profess Christianity, 46 
apostatise, 53, 55, 60 
quarrels with neighbours (see Lesa- 

oana), 51, 52 
hold pitsos, 125, 169, 310 
afraid of Lesaoana, 125 
loyal to the- English, 56, 299, 311 
ready to fight for their country, 167 
accept hut-tax, 298-9 
promote heathen reaction, 53, 64, 

79, 80, 137-8, 303-4 
hated by Matabele, 255, 264, 312 
entrust herds, 199 
send horses to Khama, 313 



THE ZAMBESI 

Basuto Christians : 
persecuted, 37, 68, 69, 87, 112, 144, 

188, 199, 200, 205, 301, 309 
their shortcomings, 79, 80, 88, 211, 
305 

their zeal, 66, 89, 159, 173, 185, 187, 
199, 203, 211, 213-14, 219, 228, 

292, 311 

intercede for Coillard, 149, 152 

baptized, 102, 173, 434 

anecdotes of, 197, 200, 204, 205, 

220, 233, 304 
devotion rewarded, 423 
as missionaries to other tribes, 119, 

210, 213, 214, 228, 257, 266, 292, 

293, see Banyai Mission 
loyalists, 300, 302 
abandoned, 304, 409 

Basutoland : 

independent, 24, 31, 48 
mission-field of Paris, 24, 32, 43 
Missionary Society : 
its history, 40 et seq 
its frontiers, 44, 55, 125, 126 
delimitated, 118, 120, 169 
reduced, 118, 169, 170, 190 
explored by Arbousset, 47 
invaded by British, 52, 53 
made a buffer-state, 49 
early social conditions, 65, 81 
governed by Moshesh, 42, 43, 263, 
329 

invaded by Boers, 32, 37, 49, 56, 123 
protected by Great Britain, 50 
abandoned by Great Britain, 54, 127 
threatened by Natal Government, 

124-31, 138, 140 
invaded by Orange Free State, 3 2, 

37, 49, 123, 133 
British protection revived under 

Cape Government, 166, 169-71 
threatened by Transvaal, 126, 138, 

140 

to be divided up in farms, 155 
divided by Molapo, 126, 149, 154, 

159, 171, 185, 188 
reunited under Letsie, 190, 194 



INDEX 



465 



Basutoland (continued) — 
entered by Langalibalele, 206 
ravaged by Gun War, 302, 303, 308 
made Crown Colony, 69, 310 
its present prosperity, 311, 422 
revisited by F. Coillard, 421-3, 432 
contrasted with Barotsiland, 337, 
339 

difficulties of travelling there, 110 
difficulties of building, 62, 80-3, 

102, 112, 116, 189, 194, 208 
mountainous, 40, 41, 42, 133-5 
first white woman there, 379 
other references, 36, 45, 79, 82, 130, 

150, 159, 161, 164, 186, 198, 209, 

213, 238, 256-7, 266-7, 284, 287, 

292, 298 

Basuto Mission (French Protestant), 
24, 32 
founded, 40, 43, 45 
prospers, 46 et seq. 
its principles, 47, 48, 59, 212 
first check, 52 

attacked by Free State, 37, 38, 56 
publishes New Testament, 69 
normal school planned, 116 
its expulsion, 73, 146, 149, 154 
thrice ruined, 38, 146, 303 
championed by public opinion, 154 
reinstated, 168, 169, 171, 185, 187 
great awakening, 73, 159, 173, 188 
First Synod, 199 
second awakening, 211, 212 
statistics, 55, 186, 311 
present condition, 422, 423, 443 
Batlokwas, 51, 52 

Batoka tribe, respect for the dead, 346 

raided by Matabele, 398 
Batlaping tribe, 176 
Bechuanas, 41, 42, 177, 240, 376 
Bechuana chief's saying, 39, 353 
Bechuana chief, see Khama 
Bechuanaland missionaries, L.M.S. : 

Mr. Hepburn, 265-7 

Dr. Livingstone, 273-4 

John Mackenzie, 180, 402 

Dr. Moffat, 43 



Bechuanaland missionaries, P.M.S. : 

M. Coillard, 171-86 

M. Fredoux, 171 

MM. Lemue and Eolland, 43 
Bechuanaland, 43, 171-86, 264, 283-7, 

290, 402 

Route to Zambesi, 265-9, 313, 425 
Beer : 

native (Basutoland), 65, 66, 201 

Matabele-(land), 259-60 

Barotsiland, 321, 399 

forbidden by Lewanika, 366 

chiefs punished for drinking, 367 
Beersheba mission station : 

founded, 45 

sacked, 37, 56 

visited by Coillard, 111 

abandoned, 170 
Beguin, Rev. E. and Mme., 370 
Bell, Major (Basutoland), 206, 307 
Bell, Mrs., 200 
Belgium, 295 
Belgians, King of, 296 
Benguella, 280 
Berea Mountain : 

defeat of British, 53 

mission station, 72, 142-4, 432 
Berenice, daughter of Nathanael, 309 
Berthoud, Rev., Swiss missionary, 234 
Berthoud, Mme., death, 289 
Bertrand, Captain A., of Geneva, 421, 

445 

Bethlehem, O.F.S., 151 

church dedicated, 115 
Bethulie mission station, 37, 170 
Bih6 (American Mission), 438 
Bina-Chabombe (goddess), 345 
Bisseux, Rev., 42, 43 
Bisset, Colonel, 168 
Bloemfontein, 44, 121, 149, 151, 207-8 
Blue Mountains, see Malutis 
Boegner, Rev. A., Director of P.M.S. , 

371, 445 
Boer : 

and unfrocked priest, 71, 72 
camp, 142, 143 
hunters, 237, 246, 265 



466 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Boers : 

at Bulawayo, 256, 261, 262 

attack Basutos, 37, 38, 50, 55, 56, 
122, 137, 186 

attack mission stations, 37, 38, 56, 
146-7, 154 

Dutch farmers in South Africa, 
37, 48, 49, 81, 85, 111, 118, 121, 
122, 123, 124, 129, 130, 131, 132, 
133, 134, 135, 138, 142, 143, 144, 
146, 148, 150, 172, 175, 208, 229, 
233, 291 

in Bechuanaland, 184, 382 

raided by Basutos, 49, 81, 82, 85, 
118-19, 122-4, 126 

their kindness, 102, 111, 115, 145, 
151, 153, 185, 194, 233, 234 
Bohoa Mountain (Wuchua), 236 
Bonskeid, 417 

Boomplatz, battle of, 50, 175, 261 
Boshoff, President O.F.S., 82 
Bosman, Eev. and Mrs., their kind- 
ness, 232, 291, 313, 314 
Bost, Eev. Ami, 4, 5, 9, 10, 22 
Bost, John (son of above), 11, 93, 
102 

Bost, Marie (her influence) , 10-13 
Bouchet, Mme,, her death, 425 
Bourke, Mr. and Mrs. E. F. (Pre- 
toria), 314 
Bourges, 14, 17 

Bradshaw, Dr. (at Zambesi), 280 
Brand, President O.F.S., 120, 122 
proclaims war against Basutos, 
123 

forbids attacks on missions, 133 
votes against expulsion of mission- 
aries, 146 
accepts Molapo's allegiance, 149 
visits Molapo, 152 
invokes Governor's arbitration, 169 
his friendliness to P. M.S., 208 

Brandy, in Basutoland, 55, 303, 305 

British flag : 

replaced (O.F.S.), 54 
hoisted (Pretoria), 229 
follows to the Zambesi, 379 



British Government : 

favourable to missions, 33, 50, 153, 

168, 171, 230, 232 
Dr. Philip its unofficial adviser, 

34, 49 

abolishes slavery at Cape, 48, 261, 
268 

abolishes slavery at the Zambesi, 
338 

makes treaty with Moshesh, 49 
proclaims Natal sovereignty, 49 
proclaims Orange sovereignty, 50 
withdraws Orange sovereignty, 54, 
56 

Moshesh doubts its good faith, 52, 
55 

indulgent to Basutos, 130, 131 

its envoys to Molapo, 145 

permits Basuto protectorate, 166-9 

persuades O.F.S. to grant mission- 
aries compensation, 38, 169, 170 

accepts Molapo's allegiance, 194 

arrests Langalibalele, 206 

annexes Transvaal, 229 

arranges trans-continental tele- 
graph, 268 

Basutos' confidence in, 299 

takes over Basutoland as a Crown 
Colony, 310-11 

extends Protectorate to Zambesi 
(south bank), 322 

and Khama, 314, 315, 322, 381, 382, 
385 

and Portugal, 395 

and Lewanika, 361, 379, 380 et seq. 

ratines Treaty of British South 

Africa Company with Lewanika, 

395 

" sacrifices friends to enemies," 409 
British Empire, its responsibilities, 
435-7 

British South Africa Co. : 
embassy to Lewanika, 383 
Treaty with Lewanika, 384-5 
opposition to, 386, 393 et seq. 
finally accepted, 395 
first representative arrives, 403 



INDEX 



467 



British South Africa Co. (continued)— 
its native policy, 395, 435 
tribute to F. Coillard, Appendix 

British, Moshesh forbids war upon, 
56, 123 

Brussels Geographical Society, 296 
Buffalo, 262, 271 
Buffer states policy, 49 
Building taught by missionaries, 41, 
356-7 

Bulawayo, 252, 267, 434-5 

Coillards leave, 264 

transformed, 424-5 
Burgers, Mr. : 

President of Transvaal, 218, 229, 
230, 233 

his State secretary, 231 
Burial customs : 

Basuto, 78 

Barotsi, 278 

Batoka and Masubia, 344 
Burial, Christian, 75, 77, 84, 136, 304 
Burial of F. Coillard, 444 
Burnet, Mr. John, 135, 145 
Bushman, Basuto Christian : 

joins Banyai Expedition, 228, 243, 
268 

death, 283-4 

Cachet, Eev., 113-15, 262 

Caledon Biver, 55, 110, 118, 120, 131, 

162, 201, 209 
Calvert, Eev., of Fiji, 291 
Calvin, J., reformer, at Asnieres, 7 
Cannibalism in Basutoland, 112, 329 
Canoes on Zambesi, 271, 273, 282, 326, 

327, 394, 396, 399 
Cape Town, 33, 34, 99, 100, 432 
Cape Colony, 428 

Cape Government and Basutoland, 
42, 48, 49, 68, 82, 120, 169, 299, 303, 
307, 310 

Cape friends of missions, 42, 53, 154, 
198, 208, 210 

Casalis, Eev. Eugene, 24, 37, 43, 45, 46 
Director of P.M.S., 171, 172, 191 
his book, Les Bassoutos, 98 



Casalis, Dr. Eugene, son of above, 

143, 144 
Casalis, Mme., nee Dyke, 379 
Cathcart's retreat, 53 
Catherine of Siena, 433 
Cattle collected on Thaba Bossio, 134 
Cattle confiscated by O.F.S.,146, 151 
Cattle fines paid by missionaries, 48, 

138 

Cattle-marriage, 67, 68, 193 
Cattle raiding (of Basutos), 49, 81, 82, 
83, 118, 122, 124, 137 

(of Barotsi), 367-9 
Cattle rearing in Barotsiland, 368 
Ceremonial laws, 66, 365, 366 
Central Africa, 40 

a crisis, 266 

opens, 175, 211, 268 

its evangelisation, 216, 266, 267 

divided, 395 
Chabombe, supreme deity, 345 
Chapi, death of, 84, 85 
Chartres, Due de, 195 
Chauvinism, 409 

Child murder, 365, see Infanticide. 
Children of the Barotsi slaves, 338, 

350, 364 
Children of chiefs, 357, 358 
Children devoted to F. Coillard, 407 
China Inland Mission, 294, 323, 412 
Chobe Eiver, 316 

Christian natives' disabilities in 

Natal, 68 
Christmas, 10, 59, 213, 417 
Church, one family, 102, 419 
Church at Leribe : 

founded, 121 

built, 188, 189, 194, 197 

completed, 198 
Cities of refuge, 321 
Civil War : 

Basutoland, 301 

Barotsiland, 316 
" Claims" of the Saviour, 260, 417 
Clarke, Sir Marshall, 310 
Cliff College, 413 
Clovis baptized at Eheims, 425 



468 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Gochet, Eev., 37, 122 
Coillard, Francois : 

spiritual ancestry, 3 

birth and parentage, 7 

misfortunes and poverty, 8, 13, 14, 
25 

childhood, and influence of his 

mother, 8-14 
influence of Bost family, 9-13 
apprenticed to gardener, 15, 16 
studies at Glay, 17-23 
call to mission work, 17, 21 
Revival influences, 9, 21, 22 
conversion, 15, 16, 19, 20 
studies in Paris, 23-5 
sells field, 28 
studies in Strasburg, 23 
ordination, 28 
early journals, 25-8 
voyage to Africa, 31 
arrival at Cape, 32-5 
arrival in Basutoland, 37 
arrival at Thaba Bossio, 59, 60 
arrival at Hermon, 59, 87-9 
arrives at Lerib^, 60 etseq. 
leaves Leribe\ 88 

intercourse with Molapo, 61, 69 

et seq. , 85, see Molapo. 
building house and church, 60-4, 

72, 80, 83, 188, 194-8 
nicknamed Father of Neatness, 36 
marriage, 65, 85, 87, 88, 90, 100, 

377, 378 

intercourse with Nathanael 72, 73 
et seq.., 84. See Nathanael Mako- 
toko 

first baptisms, 102 

literary work in Sesuto, 103-5, 249 

hymns, 103-5 

fables, 83, 104 
in English, 110, 349, 406 
in French, 405-6 
knowledge of Zulu, 157, 164, 255 
leaves Molapo' s village, 112 
intercourse with Dutch of South 

Africa, 87, 71, 111, 113-15, 

159-60, 175, 176, 207-8, 232, 



Coillard, Francois (continued) — 

233, 234, 256, 261-2, 291, 313, 

403, 433 
destined to go to Zambesi, 119 
action in Lesaoana's affair, 119, 

125 et seq. 
founds Church at Lerib6, 121 
meets Shepstone at Witzie's Hoek, 

125, 126, 129 
protects Boer commandos, 131-3 
shelters Basutos, 120, 121, 141, 308 
falls ill at Berea, 143 et seq. 

in Natal, 165, 166 

at Mamousa, 184 

at Mangwato, 268 

at Zambesi, 279 

at Kimberley, 402 
expelled from Leribe\ 149-54 
exiled in Natal, 156 
maturing of character, 23, 27, 65, 

157 

charge of American Mission, 157, 
164 

invited to Mauritius, 161 
forbidden to return to Basutoland, 

163, 171, 172, 186 
baptisms at Leribe, 177 
goes to Motito, 171 
journey thither, 174-7 
meets Moffats, 178, 297 
returns to Leribe^ 183, 184, 186 
distressed by Franco-Prussian War, 

194, 195, 198 
meets Dutch Church missionary at 

Bloemfontein, 207 
practises medicine, 208 
house built, 209 

attends K.W.T. Conference, 212-17 
asked to lead Banyai Expedition, 

221 
accepts, 223 

educates nieces and nephews, 116, 
223 

provides for his mother, 160, 161 
starts for Banyailand, 230 
invited to banquet at Pretoria, 232 
explorer and pioneer, 235, 236 



INDEX 



469 



Coillard, Francois {continued) — 
generalship, 237, 238 
commissariat difficulties, 237 
visits Masonda's crag, 241 
wards off attack, 243 
stays with Maliankombe, 245-7 
carried off to Lo Bengula's, 252 
prisoner at Bulawayo, 254-64 
forbearance with catechists, 256-69 
question of beer-drinking, 259, 366 
dreariness of captivity, 261, 263 
sent away to Khama's, 264-5 
decides to visit Zambesi, 267-8 
arrives at Zambesi, 269 
visits Victoria Falls, 270-1, 435, 
437 

poisoned, 279 

rescues Serpa Pinto, 280-5 
decides on Barotsi Mission, 288, 

292, 293 
visits Mochache, 289 
arrives at Leribe, 292 
leaves for Europe, 293 
returns to Leribe, 298 
action in Gun War, 304, 305-9 
starts for Zambesi, 310 
reaches Zambesi, 316 
reaches Lealui, 319 
advantages as a pioneer, 324 
expected to shoot himself, 326 
first preaching at Lealui, 328 
counsel to King, 329 
method of reaching villages, 354 
introduces wheat growing, 369 
difficulty of reaching slaves, 353, 

429 

vaccinates people, 357 
denounces trial by ordeal, 359 
secures justice, 361, 363 
refuses booty, 368 
alone at Sefula, 371 
his reply to Litia's profession, 376 
interpreter of treaty, 383, 384, 390 
accused of selling country, 384, 

387, 390, 391, 393 
calumnies refuted, 390, 391, 394, 

396 



Coillard, Francois (continued) — 
intercedes for X., 396 
leaves Sefula for Lealui, 396 
journey to Kakenge's, 399-402 
opinion of Matabele, 399 
operation at Kimberley, 402 
leaves for Europe, 403 
welcomed in Europe, 405 
popularity, 406, 407, 423, 424 
personal traits, 406 et seq. 
publishes book, 405, 406 
as a preacher and lecturer, 406, 

413, 414, 415, 419, 424, 437 
as host and guest, 411 
experiences at Keswick, 415 
personal gift to the Mission, 417 
gives best recruit to Madagascar, 

418 

farewell at Exeter Hall, 419 
revisits Basutoland, 421-3, 432 
raises funds for Barotsi Mission, 

293, 405, 417 
interviews Lerothodi, 301 
protests against abandonment of 

Mission, 427 
work in France and Switzerland, 

294, 405, 406, 409, 413, 414, 418, 
445 

asks for fifteen workers, 417, 418, 
424 

revisits Bulawayo, 424 
arrives at Zambesi, 424 
threatened by blindness, 432 
visits the Gape, etc., 432 et saq. 
conversation with British work- 
man, 435 
invited to preside at conferences, 
438 

sorrow at death of colleagues, 426, 
427 

attacked by Ethiopianists, 438 
et seq. 

letter to Willie Mokalapa, 439 
crisis with evangelists, 442 
confidence restored, 443 
illness and death, 444 
memorial service, 445 



470 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Coillard, Francois (continued) — 
will, extract from, 446 
appeals to sacrifice, 215, 217, 238, 

260, 415, 417 
aspirations of his life, 26, 28, 35, 

323, 416, 432, 433, 443, 444 
on adoration, 162, 163 
admiration for work of others, 162, 

164, 178, 179, 234, 289, 323, 423, 

443 

dmiration for Queen Victoria, 412, 
429 

artistic temperament, 9, 25, 104, 
113, 411 

British, his views, 283, 380, 409 
Barotsi, describes, 373 
business relations with natives, 356 
courage, 127, 243, 249, 253, 270, 

285, 286, 400 
courage, his own estimate, 26, 84, 

286-7, 424 
Divine guidance, 158, 245, 288, 310, 

401, 408, 424 
duty of reading, 113, 158 
fight of faith, 106-7, 216, 288, 352, 

412, 416, 417, 424, 427 
Jews, intercourse with, 27, 113, 114, 

198, 221 

mother, devotion to, 13, 17, 21, 61, 

63, 109, 160 
native customs, his view, 256 
native question, his view, 435-6, 

437-41 

natives, love for, 79, 374, 429, 436, 
439, 443 

peacemaking, 38, 82, 115, 119, 127, 
130-2, 171, 186, 207-8, 259, 305, 
319, ,321, 328, 367-8, 390, 396, 
401, 408, 418 

politics, dislike of, 127, 304-5, 322, 
372, 381, 390 

reverence for Scriptures, 408, 415 

singing, importance of, 9, 103-5, 
181-2, 268, 357 

tact, 247, 284, 285 

young, influence on, 24, 107, 113, 
294, 295, 407 



Coillard, Francois (continued) — 
tributes by : 

Dieterlen, Rev., 209 
Mabille, Mme., 64 
Pixley, Rev. S., 164 
Robertson, Captain, 165 
Serpa Pinto, 281 
others, 410, 411, 445 
and App. I. 
Coillard, Mme., mother of F., 8 
called Mother of Kindness, 9, 63 
poverty and heroism, 8, 9 
trains him for ministry, 8, 9, 11, 
13, 15 

opposes his being missionary, 17, 21 
consents, 22 

hears his first sermon, 24 
sufferings in Franco-Prussian War, 
195 

visited by Christina Mackintosh, 

98, 108 
letters addressed to her : 
by Nathanael, 196-7 
by F. Coillard, 61, 63, 88, 100, 
108, 138-41, 142-6, 160, 177, 
184-6, 189, 195, 196 
her death, 61 
Coillard, Mme. (ne'e Christina Mackin- 
tosh) : 

called a heroine, 91, 287 
spiritual ancestry, 3, 4 
conversation with Mme. Mabille, 36 
early life, 90-6 
and Moffat's work, 93, 177 
acquaintance with F. Coillard, 64, 

65, 96 
visits Asnieres, 98, 108 
arrival at Cape, 99 
first words to her husband, 100 
gifts for nursing, 96, 159, 289 
home-sickness, 98, 101 
self-possession, 95, 231, 256 
school work, 102, 109, 116 
active temperament, 94, 100, 157, 

378 

love of study, 92, 113, 158, 269 
strong faith, 99, 288 



INDEX 



471 



Coillard, Mme. (nee Christina Mackin- 
tosh) (continued) — 
needlework, 92, 107, 108, 109 
social gifts, 95, 284, 378 
crossing rivers, 110, 160 
early hardships, 102, 108, 112 
devotion to her husband, 111, 112 

145, 157, 243, 292, 378 
rides to nurse him, 143, 144 
illness, 154, 183, 184, 247 
and Mr. Shepstone, 139, 230, 232 
and Samuel Makotoko, 141, 157, 

160, 441 
refuses to go to Mauritius, 161 
contemplates Banyai Expedition, 

214, 222 
presentiments, 228 
encounter with State Secretary, 
230-1 

value to Banyai Expedition, 237, 
279 

at Masonda's Mountain, 240-4 
appreciated by Barotsi, 278, 377 
visits Victoria Falls, 271 
nurses Major Serpa Pinto, 281 
nurses Mme. Berthoud, 289 
ready for Zambesi Mission, 292-3 
implored to save women's lives, 320 
left at Sesheke, 319, 326, 331 
silver wedding, 332 
arrives at Sefula, 332, 349 
and king's wives, 375 
last visit to the capital, 374 
death, 376-8, 393 

other references, 64, 130, 140, 149, 
174, 177, 185, 186, 214, 223, 235, 
268, 272, 284, 295, 297, 305, 320, 
321, 356, 392 
Waddell's devotion to her, 313 
her journals and letters — 
to her husband, 97 
on death of Prince Albert, 112 
about her dwellings, 116, 209, 

217, 292, 317 
on Franco-Prussian War, 195 
Damaris, 200 
Rahab, 204-5 



Coillard, Mme. (nee Christina Mackin- 
tosh) (continued) — 
on expulsion from Lerib6, 156 
Major Malan, 213 
Dieterlen's disaster, 220-1 
Banyai expedition, 227, 229, 235, 

236, 247 

Rev. and Mrs. Bosman, 232 

Rev. and Mrs. Hofmeyr, 234 

Matabele warriors, 248 
and Lobengula, 254-6, 262 
on difficulties at Zambesi, 281-2 

General Gordon, 305-7 

Gun War, 305, 307-9 

trials of the desert, 317, 318 

Barotsi natives, 322, 323, 359 

Queen Mokwae, 330 

the Natamoyo, 360 

needs of Barotsi, 404 
Coillard, Elise, niece : 
arrives at Lerib£, 224 
accompanies expedition, 228, 236, 

237, 242, 249, 269, 271 
second expedition, 312 

starts school at Zambesi, 319 
married to Rev. D. Jeanmairet, 
320, 323 

other references, 331, 348, 349, 370 
Coleman, Mr., 145 
Colenso, Bishop, 158, 159 
Colonial Secretary, 131, 168, 169, 171, 

392, 395 
Commander-in-chief, 125 
Concession-hunters at Lealui, 386 
Congo, 268 

Conquered Territory, the, 55, 169, 170 
Consecration, 212, 215, 217, 415, 416 
Coryndon, Mr. R. T. : 

Administrator of N.W. Rhodesia, 
403, 426 

letter from, see Appendix. 
Court fool, 243, 373 
Creux, Rev., 234 
Crimean War, 23, 71, 94 
Criminals in Basutoland, 55, 81, 82, 
285 

at Zambesi, punished, 361, 363 



472 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Crocodiles, 270, 271, 322, 338, 347, 
365 

Crown Colony, of Basutoland, 69, 310 
desired by Lewanika, 386 

Damaeis, 200-4 

Dances, natives, 64, 66, 79, 190, 303, 
400 

Darby, J. N., in Montbeliard, 23 

Dardier, Dr., 370, 427 

Daumas, Eev. and Mme., 31, 36, 47, 

146-9, 170 
Death-wave, 426-7 
Death, see Burial 

Deaths at Zambesi, 283, 313, 370, 
426 

De Jager's farm, 126, 139 

Deka, 270, 283 

De la Vigne, Pere, 27 

Delagoa Bay, 395 

Desert tribes, 269, 283 

De Villiers, Commandant, 150, 151 

Rev. and Mrs., Worcester, Cape 
Colony, 433 
Diamond mines, 260, 299 
Dieterlen, Rev. H., 218, 219, 220, 
221, 229, 423 

tributes to F. Coillard, 104, 209, 210 
Dieny, Rev., letters to, 34, 107 
Dingaan, 42, 48 

Disarmament War, 68, 298-311, 409, 
423 

Drakensberg Mountains, 40, 44, 121, 

125, 127, 153 
Drink question, the, 259, 260, 366-7, 

399, 404 

Drink, Khama and the white man's, 
315 

Drinking in Basutoland, 64, 65, 303 

at the Zambesi, 321 
Drostdy Mission College (Dutch), 433 
Duff, Dr., 116, 212 
Durban, 157 
Dutch Indies, 33 
Dutch farmers, see Boers 
Dutch helpers in Barotsi Mission, 

433 



Dutch ministers, 37, 100, 208, 232 

resigned, 219 
Dutch missions, 159, 207, 210, 232, 

252, 433 
Dutch Reformed Church : 

sympathy with Missions, 33, 35, 37, 
43, 102, 111, 115, 207, 232, 234, 
291, 313, 314, 403, 433 

(Holland), 53, 154, 295 
Dwellings of natives, 83, 356, 357 

East India Company, 3 
Ebenezer, 63 
Eclipse of sun, 333 
Eleazar (catechist to Banyai), 228, 
233, 248, 279, 280, 281 

his death, 283 
Elephants, 271, 321 
English missionaries at Zambesi, 388, 

389, 391 
English : 

language, 47, 98 

outlaws, 81, 82, 171 

" never hurt anybody," 283 

their mission, 437 
Epilepsy, Molapo's, 69 

Lewanika's son, 375 
Erasmus and Seccocoeni, 233 
Ethiopian schism discredited, 258 

438 et sea. , 443 
Euphorbias, 236 
Evangelical Alliance, 412 
Ewing, Mr. William, 295 
Eyre's Dragoons defeated, 53 

Famine, 37, 53, 120, 121, 134, 139, 
145, 313 

succeeds anarchy, 14, 367 

caused by locusts, 399 

" You must have a great deal in 
your country," 45 
Faure, Rev. A. (D.R.C.), 100 
Favre, M. Edouard, 445 
Feudal system of Barotsi, 338 
Figaro (Paris) criticism of F. Coillard, 

405-6 
Fingo tribe, 41 



INDEX 



473 



Fish of Zambesi, 272 

poisonous, 279 
" Fifteen," the, 417, 418, 424 
Flood, annual, 358 
Foecy, 8, 15 

Fono, 228, 233, 243, 279 
Foreign Office, 169, 387 
France, 295, 405, 409 
" sins of," 412 

Church and State separation, 414 
Franco-Prussian War, 189, 194, 195, 

197, 198, 295, 300 
Fredoux, Rev., of Motito, 171 

Mrs., n&e Moffat, 178, 183 
French Consul at Cape, 56 
French deputation re Disarmament, 

305 

French descent of Boers, 35, 100, 115, 

207, 261, 262 
French engineer, Victoria Falls, 437 
French in Mauritius, 161 
French language, 48 
French missionaries : 

regarded as traitors, 134, 301, 386 

" one too many," 231 

diplomatic services, 48, 53, 125, 127, 
137, 210, 383, 393, 396 
French priest, 71 

French Protestant Mission, see Paris 

Missionary Society 
French Protestantism " laicized," 4, 
408 

" a glory to," 295 

revived, 5, 9, 21, 294, 413 
French representations to Colonial 

Office, 154, 169, 172 
French Eevolution, 347, 435 

of 1848, 14, 53 
Frere, Sir Bartle, 291, 300, 304 
Frewen, Mr. (F.R.G.S.), 267 
Fruit at Zambesi, 272 

Gambella (Prime Minister) : 
punished for beer-drinking, 344, 366 
superseded by a Christian, 367, 376, 
426 

his experiences in England, 430 



Game, 271, 325, 368 
Garenganze Mission, 314, 402 
Gautier, M., 309 
Geneva, 4, 5, 6, 421, 445 
Geodgedacht (Dutch Mission station), 

210, 234-5 
Geographical Societies, 296 
Gibbons, Major A. St. Hill, 324, 

421 

Glay College, 17 et seq. 
Gnus, 174 

Gold mines, 175, 178 
Gobat, Bishop, 18 
Golden Legend quoted, 410 
Gordon, General, 305, 306, 307, 311, 
322 

Gosselin, M. (pioneer), 43, 46 
" Gospel of Labour," 435 
Governors of Cape, 49, 50, 52, 53, 56, 

82, 118, 120 
Goy, M. , 370 
Great Trek, 48, 261 
Grey, Sir George, 33, 38, 56, 82, 
190 

his death, 409, 410 
Griffith, Colonel, 206, 306, 307 
Griquas, 44, 49 

Guides (Mr. Hofmeyr's), 234, 236, 
240 

Guinness family, the, 413 
Guizot, M., 33, 169 
Gun War, see Disarmament 
Gwamba tribe, 234 

Haldanb, James, 3, 4, 91 
Haldane, Robert, 3, 4, 5, 6 
Harding, Colonel, 431 
Harrysmith, 133, 152, 153, 173 
Hartebeest Fontein, 176 
Hart, Mrs. Emily, 296, 317, 360 
Hebron : 

station sacked, 56 

evacuated, 170 
Helmore and Price expedition, 179, 

180, 268, 275, 278, 324, 333, 419 
Henderson, Mr. (Pretoria), 230, 231 
Hepburn, Rev., L.M.S., 265, 267 



474 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



High Commissioner, 56, 434 
and Natal, 130, 131, 168, 169 
and Lewanika, 387, 392, 395 

High Priest, king as : 
Lo Bengula, 263 
Lewanika, 339, 348, 431 

Hocart, Pastor, 25 

Hocede, Mme., 98 

Hoffman, Mr., Ex-President O.F.S., 
111 

Hofmeyr, Rev. (Dutch Missionary), 

210, 234, 240, 252 
Holland, 53, 154, 295 
Holub, Dr. Emil, 316, 352, 368 
Home-sickness, a malady, 101, 267 
Honey reserved for royalty, 271, 37 
Hospitality : 

African, 32, 34, 70, 71, 111, 145, 
153, 234 

of Missionaries, 157, 285, 384 
House-building {see F. Coillard), 

355-7 

Houses at Zambesi, 377 
Houses, mosquito-proof, 428 
Hudson Taylor, Dr., 294, 322, 412 
Huguenots, 7, 16, 35, 43, 115, 169 
Human sacrifices, 263, 320 
Hunter, Mr. Richard, 295 
Hunters : 

Basuto, 65, 172 

Boer, 235, 237, 246, 265, 358 

Barotsi, 278, 342, 346, 347 

Bechuanas, 42, 184, 269 
Hunting at Zambesi, 284, 319 
Hut-tax (Basutoland), 298-9 

(Barotsiland), 435-6 

Ibis, 325 

Ifumi, Natal, 157, 165 
Imbault, La Ferte, 16 
Imbault, M., engineer of V. Falls 

Bridge, 437 
India, 33, 53 
Industrial work, 426 

despised by Zulu, 41 
Industrial talents of Barotsi, 340 

{see Barotsi) of Banyai, 249 



Infanticide, 350, 365 
Inyati, 248, 249, 251 
Isandlwana, battle, 290, 298 
Ivory, 275, 278, 328, 341, 344, 369 

smuggled, 275, 353 

"black," 369 

Jaquet, pastor, 17, 18, 19 

Jalla, Rev. Adolphe, 370, 390, 389, 

438, 444 
Jalla, Rev. Louis, 350, 370 
Jalla, Mme. Louis, 425 
Jeanmaire, pastor, 23 
Jeanmairet, Rev. D., 309, 312, 319, 

320, 326, 351, 368, 370 
Jeanmairet, Mme. {see Elise Coillard), 

320 

Jesuit Father (Strasburg), 27 
Jesuits at Zambesi, 314, 316 333 
Jewish sympathy, 12, 27, 113, 198, 
221 

Joas, 157, 160, 176, 432 

Joel Molapo (rebel) 301-10, 422 

Jonathan Molapo : 

influenced by F. Coillard, 67, 302 

loyalist, 301-10 

testifies to Christianity, 422 
Jonathan, catechist or explorer, 211, 

258 

Johanne Nkele, 72, 102, 120, 141, 173, 

176, 198 
Johannesburg, 434, 438 
Johnston, Sir Harry, 384 
John Williams, mission ship, 98, 288 
Joubert, General, 218, 313 
Justice, African, 80, 263, 322, 328, 
329, 360, 361, 363 

symbol of, 355 

Kaffik rebels, 283 
Kaffir Wars, 261 
Kaffir corn, 283 
" Kaffirs in Heaven," 220 
Kakenge, Chief, 399 et seg., 402 
Kalahari Desert, 43, 171, 183 
Katoka, sister of Lewanika, 360 
Katse, chieftainess, 240, 249 



INDEX 



475 



Katusi's recollections of Livingstone, 
273 

Kazungula, official entrance to 
Barotsiland, 319, 391, 403, 425 

Keate, Mr. (Lieut.-Gov. of Natal), 
168, 169, 171 

Kemuel, 141, 173 

Keswick, 412, 415 

Khama, chief of Ba-Mangwato, 180, 
264, 313, 314 
advises expedition to Zambesi, 265, 
267 

sends ambassadors to Lewanika, 

268, 270, 385 
his loyalty, 314, 385 
Lewanika's friend, 314, 329, 385 
what Barotsiland owes to him, 315 
opposes drink traffic, 315, 366 
accepts British protectorate, 322 
commends Christianity, 333, 376, 

386 

his advice about Protectorate, 381, 
382, 394, 396 
Khosana (Basuto), 228, 248, 251 

dies at Zambesi, 279 
Kidnapping of Basuto children, 50, 

141 

Kiener, Miss, 370, 377 

Kimberley, 291, 402 

King of Barotsiland, see Lewanika 

King of the Belgians, 296 

King of Italy's arbitration, 395, 402, 

and App. I. 
King Edward and Lewanika, 374, 

430 

King William's Town Conference, 
215 

Kirby, Rev. and Mrs., 16, 17 
Kok, Adam, 44, 45, 49 
Kok, Jan, 175 
Korannas, 41, 177, 185, 240 
Kronstadt, 152, 174 
Kruger, Paul, 262 

Kuruman (Moffat's station), 43, 171, 

177, 178, 179, 198, 274 
Kuruman, brother of Lobengula, 182, 

183 



Lakes, African, 268 
Lake Ngami, 180 
LakeNyassa, 438 

Barotsi Valley, once a, 358 
Langalibalele betrayed, 206, 207, 255, 

264 

Lautre\ Dr., 134, 136 

Lawes, Rev. W. G., of New Guinea, 

288 
Lealui : 

capital of Barotsiland, 270, 314, 

319, 394, 402 
battle there, 323 
F. Coillard's first visit, 319 

second visit, 327 
Gospel preached there, 328 
first white men there, 333 
starvation there, 370 
no white traders, 371 
last visit of Mme. Coillard, 375 
mission station established, 396 
British envoy arrives, 383 
incendiaries, 388 

Administrator of British South 
Africa Company arrives there, 
403, 426 

M. Coillard summoned, 389 

royal banquet, 429 

" a dying city," 440 

scene of F. Coillard's death, 444 
Lekhothla (tribunal), 65, 88,263, 326, 

359, 362, 363, 366, 376, 382, 385, 

386, 389, 394, 402 
Lemue, Rev., 42, 43, 171 
Leopards, 174, 235, 236, 349 
Leprosy, 365 

Leribe (F. Coillard's station), 142, 
146, 189, 292 
reached, 60, 61 
wild and heathen, 64 
left, 87, 88 

Mme. Coillard arrives, 100 
school, 107 

Mountain, 112, 120, 132, 308 
church founded, 121 
church finished, 194, 198 
station built, 209 



476 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Lerib£ (continued) — 
Boer attack expected, 121 
adjoins Natal, 126 
visited by Boer patrols, 131, 133 
panic, 140 

ceded by Molapo to O.F.S., 126, 

149, 154, 170, 185-6 
Christians of, 88, 149, 152, 175, 200 
Christians persecuted, 199, 200, 204, 

305 

Coillard deported from, 149 et seq., 

152, 163, 167 
Coillard's visit, 172-4 
Coillard's return to, 185 
British Government takes over, 

186, 188, 190, 194 
scene of Langalibalele's capture, 206 
a delightful work, 209 
Synod held there, 219 
starting-place for interior, 219, 228, 

312 

beautiful spot, 88, 209, 292 
ravaged by civil war, 301, 305, 309- 
423 

restored by Weitzeckers and Dieter- 
lens, 310, 423 
revisited by F. Coillard, 423, 432 
Christians of Leribe, 88, 149, 152, 
175, 200, 204, 205, 305 
persecuted, 199, 200 
their reward, 422, 423 
Lerothodi (paramount chief of Ba- 

sutoland), 301, 305 
Lesaoana, robber chief, 82, 83, 119 
raid into Natal, 123, 124, 125-30 
Leshoma (Zambesi), 269, 270, 271, 
278-9, 280, 281 ; second visit, 313, 
317, 320, 325, 356 
Letsie I. (paramount chief of Basuto- 

land), 46, 55, 123, 126, 190, 330 
Lewanika, king of Barotsiland : 
and Serpa Pinto, 280 
called Robosi, 265, 281 
sends messages to F. Coillard, 325 
succeeds Nguana-wina, 207, 279 
overthrown by Nguana-wina, 316, 
319 



Lewanika (continued) — 

conquers Nguana-wina, 319, 323 
exterminates rebels, 324, 327, 330, 
353, 367 

begs Khama to help F. Coillard's 

journey, 314 
rejects Lo Bengula's overtures, 315 
re-enters his capital, 323 
desires missionaries, 229 
sends for F. Coillard, 324, 325 
receives F. Coillard, 327, 328 
assigns Sefula for mission, 331 
sends children to school, 357, 358 
initiates reforms, 359, 361, 363, 366, 

369, 386, 403 
digs canals, 370 

his sacerdotal character, 339, 348, 
431 

his craftsmanship, 341 
makes himself invisible, 348 
disgraces witch-doctors, 362 
encourages cattle-breeding, 368 
grows wheat, 370 

hesitates to become a Christian, 

374, 429, 431 
testifies to Christianity, 430 
affection for F. Coillard, 330, 377, 

389, 396, 399, 428 
desires British protection, 361, 380, 

381, 383 
asks Khama' s advice, 382 
his rank and power, 315, 384 
signs treaty with British South 

Africa Co., 385 
threatened with deposition, 374, 

381, 385, 389 
misled by traitors, 387 
confiscates mails, 387, 388 
refuses to burn mission stations, 388 
called a " free trader," 387 
summons F. Coillard, 389 et seg>. 
wishes to tear up treaty, 390 et seq. 
deprived of territory by arbitration, 

395, 402 

sends army against vassal, 368, 399 
receives British representatives, 
383, 403, 426 



INDEX 



477 



Lewanika (continued) — 
punishes beer-drinking, 366 
appoints Christian Prime Minister, 

367, 376, 426 
attends Coronation, 374, 430 
two contrasted banquets, 428 
asks F. Coillard's opinion of hut- 
tax, 436 

intrigues with Ethiopians, 438, 442 

his wives, their state functions, 342 
Libebe, chief of Ndara, 316 
" Liberalism " in Religion, 261-2 
Lienard, Rev. J., 425, 426 
Limpopo River, 42, 48 

crossed, 233, 235, 236 
Liomba (second Minister of State) : 

supports Mission, 333 

supports proposed British Protec- 
torate, 361, 382 
Lion and Livingstone, 253 

magic potion of, 349 
Lions, 26, 184, 235, 262, 270, 271, 317, 
344, 347 

den of, 283, 320 
Litia : 

son of Lewanika, 273, 342, 370, 397 
pupil of the Mission, 358 
visits Mangwato, 376 
delivers Khama's messages, 374, 
394 

professes conversion, 374, 376 

baptized, 425, 426 
Livingstone, Dr., 179, 267, 271, 275, 
281, 333 

denounces Makololo, 180 

fights Sebitoane, 272-4 

traditions at Zambesi, 272-7 

letter to Gordon-Bennett, 333 
Livingstone, Mrs., at Zambesi, 333 
Livingstone (township), Victoria Falls, 

437 

Livingstonia Mission, 438, 443 

Loatile Mission station, 396 

Lo Bengula, king of the Matabele : 

his childhood, 182, 183 

overlord of Banyai, 211, 245, 249, 
288 



Lo Bengula (continued) — 

takes Coillard prisoner, 251 et seq. 
his courtesy, 255 
his rudeness, 263 

refuses leave for Mission, 254, 264 
asks Lewanika's alliance, 315 
his death, 399 

site of his kraal Government Hous 
424 

Lochner, Mr. Elliot, envoy, 383, 384, 

386, 390 
Locusts, 399 

London Missionary Society (se 
Moffat), L.M.S., 42, 49, 178, 290 
in Matabeleland, 181, 182, 254, 257, 
264 

in Madagascar, 418 

in New Guinea, 288 

at Zambesi, 180, 420 
Lorriaux, Mme., 432 
Lovedale, 215 
Ludorf, Mr., 175 
Lydenburg, 50 

Lydia Mamusa, wife of Molapo, 62, 
205, 301 

Mabillb, Mme. , 36, 64, 191 
Mabille, Rev. A., 191, 192, 193, 214 
plans Zambesi Mission, 119, 215, 
216 

exertions for Basutos, 304, 305 
Macdonald, trader, 324 
" Machine a sacrifices," 428 
Mackenzie, Rev. J., 180, 402 
Mackintosh, Christina, 90 

see C. Coillard 
Mackintosh, Rev. Lachlan, 4, 91, 95 
Mackintosh, Kate, 93, 95, 96 
Madagascar, 412 
Maeder, Rev., 38 

his son, 208 
Magic (see Witchcraft), 353, 386 
Magic potion, 349 
Magician, King as a, 339, 342, 348 
Magicians (see Witch-doctors), 332 

Livingstone reputed, 272, 276 

F. Coillard reputed, 327, 353 



478 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Mails, 287, 387, 392, 393 
Mai tin, Rev., of Berea, 72, 143, 145 
Majuba Hill, 409 
Makalaka tribe, 235 
Makoatsa (Khama's ambassador), 268, 
385 

Makololo Empire at Zambesi : 
founded by Sebitoane, 42 
visited by Livingstone, 119, 274, 

333, 334 
destroyed, 180, 267, 270, 272, 275 

Makololos, 343 

Cbiefs Sebitoane, Sekeletu, and 

Mpororo, 180, 277 
imposed Sesuto, 119 
ill-treated Helmore, 275, 278 
denounced by Livingstone, 180, 274 
exterminated, 277, 278, 340 
respected by Barotsi, 272, 277 

Makoloko, 72, see Natbanael 

Makoniane, helper of Mosbesh, 43 

Malabocb, Chief, 290 

Malan, Caesar, of Geneva, 5, 22, 212, 
421 

Malan, Major, 212-216, 295 
Malays of Cape, 33, 34, 113 
Maliankombe, 245-251 
Malutis (Blue Mountains), 133 
Mambaris, slave dealers, 321, 369 
Ma-Mbunda tribe (witch-doctors) 316, 
332, 339, 444 

discredited, 361, 362 
Ma-Moramboa,chief wife of Lewanika, 

375 

Mangwato (Shoshong), 264, 266, 268, 
269, 284, 314 

Litia's visit to, 376, 394 
Mantsupha, prophetess, 137, 138, 192 
Ma-Nkoya tribe, 342 
Marabastadt, 234 
Ma-Rotsi, see Barotsi 
Marriage of the Barotsi, 350 
Marriage of F. Coillard, 90, 100 

Elise Coillard, 320, 325 
Maria, Basuto servant, 63, 85, 108, 

109, 195 
Marico, 262 



Masaroa tribe, 283 
Mashikulumbwe tribe, 368, 369, 388 
Mashi or Mashasha tribe, 439 
Mashonas tribe, 211, 238, 368 
Masonda (Banyai chief), 239-46, 249, 
251, 400 

forced to return plunder, 245, 249, 

256 
Massacres : 

by Lesaoana, 120, 140 
by Joel, 309 

of Makololo, 180, 267, 277-8, 340 
by Matabele, 41, 182, 253, 263, 398 
of Matabele by Sebitoane, 273 
at Zambesi, 273, 275, 277, 278, 330, 
401 

Masubia tribe, 339, 345, 347 

Masupha (Basuto chief), 46, 301, 305, 
306, 307 

Matabele Christians, 41, 182 

Matabele tribe : 

under Mosilikatse, 41, 42, 43, 48, 

54, 179, 181, 183 
under Lobengula, 211, 254-265 
tyrants of Banyai, 238, 239, 245, 
248 et seq. 

Matabele induna, 253 

Matabele hate Basutos, 207, 255, 257, 
264, 312 
cruel and arbitrary, 255, 263 
in Basutoland, 329 
at Zambesi, 271, 273, 283, 316, 385 
at Mangwato, 284, 315, 382 
their overthrow, 398, 399, 403 
first and second Matabele Wars, 
384, 402, 424, 425, 435 

Matabele and C. J. Rhodes, 287 

Matabele contrasted with Barotsi, 339 

Mathaha, rebel chief, 319, 324, 341 

Matolela tribe, 339 

Matsitsi tribe (Bulawayo), 260 

Mauritius, 161 

Mboho, King, 339, 342, 343 

Medical missionaries : 
Basutoland, 134-6 
Barotsiland, 362-3 

Medicine men, see Witch-doctor 



INDEX 



479 



" Medicine " (charm), 86, 254, 342-3, 
369 

Mekuatling station : 

attacked by Boers, 133, 146-9 

theatre of war, 142 et seq. 

evacuated, 170 
Mercier, George, 426 
Merovingian kings, 260 
Michael's Fountain, 236 
Mildmay, 215, 412, 415 
Military tribes, 41 
Milk, superstitions, 86, 271 
Milk, none to be had, 108, 368 
Milner, Lord, 434 
Mining company, 386, 390 
Missionaries "the foot of the Church," 

419 

Missionary Conferences, 59, 87, 116, 

212, 221, 438 
"Missionary pastry," 414 
Mission Eomande, 3, 5, 210 

(Swiss Mission), 414 
Mission, Anglican, 72, 209, 292 
Mission, see Dutch 
Missions, German, 210, 221, 234, 289 
Missions " all one," 58, 289, 418-19 
Missions, palmy days, 33, 45 
Missions, a witness to Revelation, 445 
Missions and F. Coillard, 11-17 
Missions and C. Coillard, 93, 94 
Missions a means to revival, 294, 414 
Mission work " not a romance," 268, 

295, 352 

Moati (poison ordeal), 278, 279, 316, 

321, 360 
Mochache (prophetess), 289, 290 
Modder River (Basuto frontier), 44, 

118 

Moffat, Robert : 

influence on F. Coillard, 12, 177 
influence on C. Coillard, 93 
at Kuruman, 43, 171, 177, 178, 419 
among Matabele, 182, 264 
a last interview, 297 
Moffat, J. S., 178, 179, 434 
Mokamba (Gambella), 376, 426 
Mokumba, " a noble savage," 275, 280 



Mokwae of Nalolo : 

Barotsi queen, 324, 330, 340, 370, 
428 

an artist, 341 
her functions, 344 
illtreats missionaries, 388 
Molapo, son of Moshesh : 
baptized, 46 
apostatizes, 60 

jealousy of brother, 60, 123, 126 
chief of Leribe, 60-89, 105, 112, 
121 

punishes marauders, 81, 82, 85 
pleased to see a Jew, 114 
repudiates Lesaoana, 124, 125-30 
threatened by O.F.S. and Trans- 
vaal, 126, 138, 140 
asks British protection, 124, 125 
comes under O.F.S. , 126, 149 et 

seq., 188 
treachery to Coillards, 149, 152 
unfriendliness, 173, 217 
persecutes Christians, 69, 188, 199, 
200 

accepts British protection, 190, 194 
revives heathen customs, 79, 80, 
188, 190 

betrays Langalibalele, 206, 207, 

255, 264 
loyal to Great Britain, 300 
death, 205, 228, 301 
afraid his son should be a Christian, 

67, 302 

Molitsani, chief of Mekuatling, 133 

Mondain, Rev. G., 418 

Monod, Adolphe, 25 

Monod, Frederic, 5, 6 

Monopoly, 339, 353, 354, 355, 357, 

370, 387 
Montauban, 5, 426 
Montbeliard, 17, 21, 23, 24 
Mont- aux- Sources, 47 
Moore, Rev. E. W., 419 
Mopani scrub, 269 
Morantsiane, rebel chief, 275, 324 
Morija, first mission station in Basuto- 
land, 36, 45, 82, 119, 187, 306 



480 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Morija, sacked, 38, 56 
Moroki, Basuto chief, 80 
Morosi, rebel chief, 299 
Morton, Mr., Cape Town, 34 
Moshesh Tsekolo, 299 
Moshesh, Chief of Basuto, 41 
his history, 43 et seq. 
receives French mission, 44, 45 
first treaty with Great Britain, 
49 

affronted by Sir H. Smith, 52 

his intrigues, 52, 56 

defeats the English, 52, 53 

his letter to Governor, 53 

outwits trader, 57 

Bible expositions, 60, 105-6 

at war-dance, 106 

attacked by Boers, 123 

forbids war with English, 56, 123 

will not punish Lesaoana, 125 

surrounded by witch doctors, 119, 

134, 137 
rallies his people, 134, 138, 190 
confesses Christ conqueror, 137 
accepts British protection, 169 
professes Christianity, 46, 60, 190-3 
conciliates his enemies, 329 
his death, 190, 194 
his trust in the Queen, 299 
other references, 69, 85, 229, 256, 

263, 264 

Mosilikatse, Matabele chief, 43, 45, 

179, 181, 182 
Mosi-oa-tunia, 271 

see Victoria Falls. 
Moslem cemetery, 34 
Moslems, Mission to, 113 
Mota Reza goddess, 346 
Motito, 43, 45, 171, 177, 183, 262 
Miiller, George, 416 
Murderers : 

English, 82, 171 

Barotsi, 267, 270, 275, 277, 321, 

358, 363, 364 
Basuto, 85, 309 
Matabele, 252, 255, 265 
Murray, Rev. Andrew, 403, 416 



Naliele, 333 

Nalikuanda (state barge), 341 
Nalolo, 324, 344 
Napier, Sir G., Governor, 49 
Narubutu (Barotsi chief), 324, 361 

his ancestry, 343 

religious traditions, 349 

venerated as a god, 361 
Natal, 32, 40, 48, 68, 71, 106,113, 124, 
126, 441 

proclaimed British, 49, 261 

raided by Lesaoana, 123-3 et seq. 
Natal colonists petition the Queen, 

131 
Natal : 

Missionaries exiled to, 149, 153, 
156-65, 168, 170, 172, 230, 256 
Natal Government : 

Basuto chief's petition, 167, 169 

native policy, 68, 299 
Natal, F. Coillard visits, 223 
Natamoyo (Minister of Mercy), 382 

welcomes peace, 319 

his functions, 344, 360 

missionary a Natamoyo, 360 
Nathanael Makotoko, Basuto chief, 
nephew of Moshesh, 72, 172 

death of his wife, 73 et seq. , 79, 80 

"nature's gentleman," 73 

gives literary help, 86, 104 

desires to be Christian, 73, 84 

Molapo's ambassador to Shepstone 
(first time), 125, 127, 128, 129 

Molapo's ambassador to Shepstone 
(second time), 166, 167, 168 

confides son to Coillards, 141, 157 

a faithful friend, 141, 150, 186, 228 

"hero of a hundred fights," 73, 
128, 167, 168 

at defence of Thaba Bossio, 134, 137 

conversion, 73, 159, 163 

his prayers, 163, 432 

his prayers answered, 164, 217 

baptized, 173 

his fervour, 186 

persecuted by Molapo, 188, 199 
gifts of gratitude, 141, 196 



INDEX 



481 



Nathanael Makotoko (continued) — 
letter to F. Coillard's mother, 196, 
197 

indignant at treachery, 207 
on gun war, 299 

commands loyal Christians, 302, 
303 

gives Christian burial to enemies, 

136, 304 
welcomes Coillards home, 305 
his children, 303, 309 
his old age, 200 

last meeting with F. Coillard, 432 
National Councils (jpitso) : 

Basuto, 106, 125, 169, 299, 310 

Barotsi, 319, 332, 373, 382, 385 

Matabele, 181, 263 
Native Christians, their treatment, 

68, 441 
Native problems, 434 
Neethling, Rev., 403 
Net-making at Zambesi, 341, 348 
Ngaka (doctor), 86, 339, 342 

Livingstone, 272, 276 

F. Coillard, 327 
Nguana-wina : 

Barotsi king, 270, 275, 278 

deposed, 270 

fights Lewanika, 279 
Nguanetsi River, 236 
" Nina," sister of Lobengula, 260 
Njoko River, 331 
Nyaka-toro, 401, 402 
Nyambe, supreme deity, 339, 342, 345, 

347-8 

Nyanikoe (Banyai), 245, 249, 252 

Orange River, 42, 44, 47 

Orange sovereignty proclaimed, 50 
withdrawn, 54, 55, 409 

Orange Free State, and Basutos, 38, 
48, 49, 50, 52, 54, 55 
invades Basutoland, 48, 56 
frontier troubles, 50, 55, 81, 82, 85 
war with Basutoland, 118-67 
storms of Th. Bossio, 135 
ejects missionaries, 146, 150 



Orange Free State (continued) — 
recruits commando in Cape Town, 
166 

forbids Coillards to return, 163, 

167, 186 
traversed, 171, 172, 174 
accepts Molapo's vassalage, 126, 

149, 151, 154, 188 
resigns it, 194 
O.F.S. Mission, workers from, 59, 
208, 433 

Oratoire Church, Paris, 28, 418, 444 
Origin of Barotsi Mission, 216 
Origin of nations (supposed), 347 
Orpen, Mr., 121, 306 
Outlawed white men, 50, 55, 80, 82 

Palapye route to Zambesi, 425 
Panda's ambassadors, 106 
Panda-matenga, 316 
Paris, 23, 25, 28, 37, 94, 95, 96, 99, 

157, 163, 171, 172, 413, 418, 444 
Paris Missionary Society (P.M.S.),3, 

17, 21, 23, 24, 31, 42, 210, 293 

see Basuto Mission 
Patrick, Saint, 334, 396 
Patterson, Captain, murdered, 265 
Paynter, Rev. F. (letter), 428 
Peace of the Desert, 317 
" Peace bringers," 319 
Pellissier, Rev., 36 
Philip, Dr., L.M.S., 34, 42, 44,45,49 
Pietermaritzburg (Maritzburg), 153, 

157, 164, 172 
Pioneers of Paris Society, 42 

of Basutoland, 24, 43, 45 

of Barotsiland, 3, 370 

of Garenganze, 314 
Poison ordeal, see moati, 316, 321 
Poisoners (Barotsi), 278-9, 360 
Polygamy, 66-8, 350, 450 
Portuguese and Kakenge, 400, 402 

and Great Britain, 395, 449 

explorers, 285, see Serpa Pinto 

and slave trade, 321, 323, 334 

ambassador, 296 
Port Elizabeth, 99, 178 



482 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Potchefstroom, 174, 175, 262, 291 
Prayer, 21, 222, 294, 416, 453 
Pretoria, 235 

gaol, 218, 220, 221, 230, 258 

banquet, 232 

British occupation, 229 et seq. 

Dutch parsonage, 232, 291 

public reception, 313 
Pretorius, 50, 361 

(relative), murdered, 126 
Price, Eev. Roger, 179, 180, 268, 324, 

419, 420 

Primitive Methodist Mission, 388, 391 
Prince Albert's death, 112 
Prince Imperial's death, 290 
Prosch, Dr. de, 444 
Protestants (French), 5, 8, 9, 16, 33, 
154, 169, 212, 294-5, 405, 408, 418 
in Mauritius, 161 
Pyt, Henri, 5, 46 

Queen Victoria and Orange sove- 
reignty, 50 

and Moshesh, 55, 299 

at Holyrood, 98 

petitioned by Natal, 131 

petitioned by Basutos, 167, 169 

birthday at Pretoria, 229, 232 

swearing to, 231 

and Lo Bengula, 255 

and Lewanika, 329, 361, 379, 381, 
392, 395 

and Diamond Jubilee, 412 

her death, 429 
Quilimane, 268 

RAINMAKING, 204, 205, 320 
Rama-khethe, 36 
Ratau, chief, 320 

Reforms at Zambesi, 361 et seq. } 366, 

367, 386, 397, 398, 403 
Reformed Churches, 4, 163, 294 
Reid, Mr. Percy C, 421 
Reinforcements, 370, 424, 427 
Religion of the Basutos, 66 

of the Barotsi, 339-49, 431 
Reutter, Dr., 428 



Revival in Scotland, 4 
in France and Switzerland, 5, 9 
in the Jura, 21, 22 
in Asnieres, 24 

in Basutoland, 73, 159, 187, 198, 212 
Revival and missions, 294, 414 
Revolution at Zambesi, 316, 319, 
324 

in France, 3, 4, 5, 435 

of 1848, 14, 53 
Reza, supreme deity, 345 
Rhodes, C. J., 286, 287, 383 
Rhodesia : 

North-West, 425, 426, 435 

Southern, 48 
Robosi, see Lewanika 
Rolland, Samuel, 18, 42, 43, 45 
Rose, Mr. Hugh, 93 
Ross, Major, and malaria, 428 
Ryle, Bishop, 19, 413 

Sabatiee, Auguste, 405, 408 
Sacrifice : 

appeal to, 215, 217, 238, 423 

animal, 74-7, 320-47 

Human, 263, 320 
Saltpans, 269 

Samuel Makotoko, 141, 157, 160, 
441 

Sanctuary, right of, 133, 360 
Satan's opposition, 98, 238, 352, 389 
Sauer, Mr., 306 
Schools, Basuto, 107, 113, 187 

normal, 116, 214 

Barotsi, 357, 393, 430 

in Sesuto, 46, 69, 103 
Scott, Rev. J., 121 

Scripture, plenary inspiration of, 4, 
408 

Sebitoane, Makololo chief, attacks 
Sechele, 273 
rules Barotsiland, 42, 179, 267, 275, 
277 

his death, 180, 272, 273, 274 
Seccocoeni, 230, 233 
Sechele, 273 

emigrates, 42, 219 



INDEX 



483 



Sefula station, 331, 351, 383, 389, 396 

burial-place, 444 
Sekeletu, successor of Sebitoane, 180, 

275, 277, 428 
Seleka, 290, 312 
Selous, F. C, 371 
Semoinji, 413, 444 

Sepopa, Barotsi King, 270, 275, 277, 
278 

Serpa Pinto, Major, 280-3, 285, 286, 

296, 316, 325, 333, 352 
Serotsi (language of Barotsi) , 342 
Sesheke, 270, 274, 278, 279, 280, 282, 

351, 391 

Sesheke Station, 270, 274, 275, 278, 
279, 280, 282, 320, 325, 327, 331, 
332, 370, 388, 391 

station founded, 320, 356 
Shangani River, 299 
Sheppard, Sir Sidney, 382, 383 
Shepstone, Sir T. : 

in Natal, 124, 125, 129, 166-71 

letter to F. C., 139 

at Pretoria, 230, 231, 232 

and Lobengula, 256, 257 
Shiloh L.M.S., 260 
Shooting birds, 325, 368, 420 
Shoshong, 266, 269, 283, 287, 377 
Sibi, " a chief who eats," 246 
Sikonyela, chief, 51, 52, 85 
Simone, of Geodgedacht, 236, 240 
Sinde (chief), 399 

Slavery, 141, 320, 321, 330, 338, 343 
leads to infanticide, 350, 364, 365 
abolished at Cape, 336 
abolished at Zambesi, 336 
Slave trading and slave raiding, 321, 
334, 340 
forbidden, 369, 403 
Slaves, 320, 326 , 344, 348, 357, 358 

reaching, 353, 429 
Smallpox, 313, 357, 365 
Smith, Rev. J., Natal, 190, 208 
Smith, Sir Harry, 50, 51, 52, 54, 
261 

Social side of mission work, 371, 372, 
374 

Somptseu, see Shepstone, 124, 256 



Sorcerers, baloi, evildoers, 86, 278-9, 
321 

Sorcerers and sorcery (black magic), 
87, 347, 359, 360, 371, 382, 388 

South Africa, 33, 40, 56, 98, 119, 154, 
207, 409, 420, 421 

Sprigg, Sir J. Gordon, 298, 300 

Stanley Smith, 323 

SteUenbosch, 403 

Stephen, Mr. John, of Largs, 295 

Stewart, Dr., of Lovedale, 215, 268, 
443 

Strasburg, 23, 27, 28, 394 
Studd, C, 323 

Student Volunteer Movement, 412 
Sun worship, symbolic, 345 et seq. 
Superstition, 73, 127, 167, 365 
Surprise party, 203 
Swiss Missions, see Missions 
Switzerland, 4, 22, 294, 295, 414 
Sykes, Rev. W., L.M.S., 182, 255, 
259, 263 

Tchaka, Zulu chief, 43 
Telegraph to Tete, 258 
Thaba Bossio, citadel, 41, 45, 56, 57, 
59, 190, 306 

defence of, 133-38 
Thateli, Chief, 290 
Theft, 322, 328, 361 
Thlotsi, 43, 188, 301, 303, 306, 309 
Thomas, Rev., L.M.S., 260 
Thomas, Morgan, murdered, 265 
Thuto (Gospel), 413 

native testimonies to, 422, 431, 432 
Tolstoi-ism, 408 
Torrey, Dr., 416 

Tortures of the Barotsi, 361, 403 

of the Matabele, 255, 260, 398 
Transmigration of souls, 349 
Transport difficulties, 318 
Transvaal, 126, 138, 140, 229, 233, 

255, 313, 409 
Treaty of Chartered Co., with Le- 

wanika, 380 et seq., 395 

revised, 426 
Trial by ordeal, 321, 358, 359, 360, 

361, 403 



484 COILLARD OF 



THE ZAMBESI 



Tribal deities, 346-7 

Trotter, Captain and Mrs., 97, 98 

Troubridge, Miss, 95 

Tsetse fly, 269, 270, 317, 331 

Vaal Eiver, 152 
Valdezia, 234-5, 289 
Van Eeenen's Pass, 125 
Van Brandis, 122 
Veillees, 12 

Victoria Falls discovered, 179 

visited, 270, 340 

railway to, 437, 444 
Viervoets, battle of, 48, 52, 300, 

304 

Vos, Rev., of Tulbagh, 37 

Waddell, Mr. William, 313, 317, 

318, 331, 371, 381, 389 
Waldensian valleys, 5, 154, 294-5 
Wall, H., trader, 282 
Wankies, 423 
Warren, Sir Charles, 291 
Waterboer, Griqua chief, 49 
Weitzecker, Rev. and Mrs., 310, 423 
Wellington, Cape Colony, 35, 36, 43, 

403 

Wepener, Boer General, 135, 136 
Westbeech, George, 267, 316, 321, 

327, 333, 371 
West Coast traders, 328 
"Wheat or Chaff," 19, 413 
Widdicombe, Canon, quoted, 172, 302, 

304 

Wild beasts, 54, 171, 184, 235, 236, 

271, 318, 322 
Willie Mokalapa, Ethiopianist, 438- 

43 ; 

Wilson's engagement, 399 
Winburg, 48, 71, 81 
Witch-burning, 320-1, 359, 360, 396 
Witchcraft (white magic) : 
in sickness, 360 

in Basutoland, 66, 74, 85, 86, 137, 
303 

Livingstone's, 272, 273, 274, 276 
decrees against, 361, 362-3 



Witch-doctors (ngaka), magicians : 
in Basutoland, 66, 79, 86, 119, 134, 

137, 190, 192, 243 
in Matabeleland, 254 
Livingstone thought to be, 273, 276 
F. Coillard thought to be, 327, 

332-3, 353 
in Barotsiland, 279, 320, 332, 339, 
342-3, 344, 361, 362 
Witzies Hoek, 126, 130 
Woman-chief, her courage, 343 
Women : 

in Basutoland, 51, 54, 67, 68, 76, 132 

in Barotsiland, 320, 350 
Wonderfontein, 291 
Worcester, Cape Colony, 433 

Zambesi, 42, 119, 179, 180, 213, 223, 
267, 268, 270, 272, 273, 274, 280, 
238, 296, 310, 313, 316, 317, 323, 
328, 330, 338, 370, 377, 381, 385, 
398, 417, 423, 424, 425 

climate bad, 426, 428 

" to send workers to," 48 

Upper reaches of, 399, 402 

ford of the, 319, 391, 403 

British Protectorate reaches, 322, 
379, 381, 395 

beauty of, 271 
Zambesians, 277, 293, 323, 403 

See Barotsi 
Zambesi Mission, 188, 289, 292, 337, 

350, 414, 421, 430, 437 
Zebras, 174 
Zimbabwe ruins, 239 
Zoutpansberg, 210, 211, 289, 290 
Zulu: 

language, 157, 202, 255 

chief and Makoloko, 128, 129 

war, 290, 298, 300 

troubles foretold, 158 
Zulus, 41, 42, 43 

conquered, 48 

intrigued with, 52 

raided, 124, 261 [207 

threaten Basutoland, 125, 151, 152, 

tractable, 139 

and Dr. Colenso, 158 



UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GEE SHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. 



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ft 910' 



